Chesapeake Conservancy and Bucknell University recently partnered to develop the Pennsylvania Native Tree Selector tool, providing residents and conservation planners with an easy resource to select native tree and shrub species.
Chesapeake Conservancy joined forces with senior Bucknell University students, Claire Engel, Emily Rivera, Reva Sharma, Colin Soule, Aya Tarist and John Uysal to codevelop and publish a publicly accessible, comprehensive web tool to select native tree species specifically for Pennsylvania. The students were part of the computer science and engineering program under tutelage from Assistant Professor Todd Schmid. The work was supported by Chesapeake Conservancy Intern Ava Lang (Susquehanna University '25).
To stay aligned with its Chesapeake Bay restoration goals, Pennsylvania must plant 95,000 acres of riparian forest buffer by 2025. This tool will support the volunteer groups, nonprofits, state agencies and other partners that are accelerating their work to meet this goal.