About Ancient Trees
Ancient Trees maps the old trees worth walking to, city by city, with the story of each one and directions to the trunk. It is an independent project from the Netherlands.
Where the trees come from
We start from official registers: the lists of protected and monumental trees that governments and city councils publish. From those, and from the tree trails councils put out, dendrological societies and local newspapers, we choose the trees worth the walk. Each one rests on an official register or on two independent sources, every tree page lists them, and every pin says whether it marks the exact trunk or only the right part of a park.
Trees that have died, trees on private land and trees whose location is kept quiet to protect them are left out.
How the stories are written
The stories are drafted with AI from those sources, which are listed at the foot of every tree page. That is how a small project can cover this many cities. It also means we will sometimes get something wrong, which is why the next part matters.
Where you come in
If you stand in front of one of these trees, you know things we do not: whether it is still there, which trunk it is, how big it really is. Every tree page has a button to tell us or to add a photograph, and every report gets an answer. You can also send us a tree we are missing.
The people who look after the trees
We write to the people who care for these trees: park services, botanical gardens, tree registers and local tree groups. Several have already corrected or confirmed trees in their care, and their corrections are on the map.
Where our facts come from, register by register, is on the sources page.