You see them everywhere, except in the woods. Lumpy, domed volcanos of mulch around the bases of every tree on a site. What some people don’t realize is that they are slowly stressing and ultimately killing their trees. Building up mulch against the trunk of a tree 4” to 6” and sometimes even 10” above the natural root flare is a very effective way to stress and kill a tree. This can cause fungus and insect infestations at the base of the tree, cracking of the bark and girdling from mice that like to live over winter in these volcano domes. If you can’t see the root flare where the buttress roots meet the original ground level, you have too much mulch or soil on the tree.

The Delavan Lake Sanitary District is employing a mobile application configured by R.A. Smith National to view GIS datasets and access digital documents in the field. Whether it’s information on their sanitary sewer pipes, manholes, or laterals, the mobile application is helping this sanitary district do their work better and faster. The mobile GIS viewer (ArcGIS App for iOS) is easily accessed in the field using iPads. While Delavan Lake is one of the first sanitary districts in Wisconsin to jump into the world of mobile, it won’t be long before others see the value.