Queens park joins Forest Service’s “smart forest” ranks

The woods of Alley Pond Park in Queens are a little smarter than your average copse of trees, thanks to a suite of real-time monitoring instruments that have been installed to monitor the impact of climate change, the New York Times reported.

The instruments, including a webcam, wind vane, rain gauges and other various sensors, have been implemented as part of the U.S. Forest Service’s smart forest initiative, which monitors six woodlands throughout the Northeast. Alley Pond Park is the first urban forest to be studied in the program.

Data from the park will help scientists understand how rapidly climate change is affecting woodland ecosystems, and may also inform policy-making. Urban forests are particularly important to the initiative, as 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in cities.

Top image: Alley Pond Park in Queens.