Una Casa chiamata Albero - English version

Have you ever stopped to look at a tree? What did you see at that moment? The rough trunk, the dense branches, and up to the canopy... nothing else? What if we told you that hidden in the crevices of that tree there are THOUSANDS of creatures, would you still see just a tree? Few know about “Habitat Trees”, real homes for many living species, so precious for the environment that they also impact the well-being of us humans.

We are a research group made up of ecologists, zoologists, and arborists, and this is our goal: to make you aware of the importance of Habitat Trees as IRREPLACEABLE VERTICAL HOMES for biodiversity.

Help us build an educational model of a Habitat Tree. Ours will not be just any tree, but it will travel to museums and cities to tell everyone about this small great hidden world.

We promise you will never look at a tree with the same eyes again!

Protecting trees, vital for biodiversity and the future of our planet, is the most important action we keep postponing. We are a group of researchers, exploring the hidden life hosted by trees, discovering the species that depend on them and how together they ensure our health and that of the environment. Our goal is to create a model of a habitat-tree to showcase this richness and teach how to protect it. This unprecedented and crucial project will allow us to safeguard what we know and better seek what we still don't know. Your help can make it a reality. Every contribution will help us dispel any doubts about postponing. Join us to save the trees!

THE TREE (The Goal)

The goal of our campaign is to create an Habitat Tree that serves as an educational and outreach tool to be exhibited in cultural venues. This will allow us to raise awareness about the importance of tree conservation for the biodiversity they support. We aim to promote a concept and vision of trees, mostly unknown today, as a great home for biodiversity.

THE SEED (The Idea)

The idea arose to find an effective way to convey what we see when studying trees but is very difficult to see without expert eyes (or a microscope)! We want to share with you the incredible variety of a bustling world of life that surrounds us. It is a hidden world, made up of small and elusive creatures, highly skilled in camouflaging or moving away from prying eyes, behind raised bark, in trunk holes, or up there, at the top, on the highest branches…

THE THREATS (Why)

The survival of this variety of life is threatened. The conservation of Habitat Trees is at risk. One of the main threats is the REMOVAL of these trees. The reason is that their ecological value is not fully understood, so they are thought to be cut down or 'replaced'. This lack of awareness is widespread, sometimes even among professional green space managers, public property administrators, or private citizens. This highlights the need to promote greater awareness of the crucial role these trees play in the ecosystem, both for the environment and human well-being. In recent years, we have been studying and protecting many of these trees, but we are aware that it is necessary and urgent to communicate their importance to everyone. Only in this way can we inform various stakeholders in promoting conservation practices. We know that by raising awareness among more and more people on this issue, we can stimulate concrete actions to conserve more Habitat Trees and effectively address one of the most important current ecological challenges, that is biodiversity loss.

THE USE OF RESOURCES (How we will spend the funds)

How will we use your contribution? In case of a successful campaign, we will use it to create the tree! It will be made by a team of artisans from Verona. Remember, our goal is €10,000, but every amount collected will be DOUBLED. In fact, when we reach €5,000, our co-financier, Fondazione Cariplo, will contribute another €5,000 (but only if we reach the €5,000 threshold).

And if we reach this goal? We already have another fantastic idea to save the trees but… we don't want to reveal anything, it's a surprise!

THE WOODPECKER'S HOLE (The Structure and Dendromicrohabitats)

The tree will have a high educational-outreach value, reproducing not just any tree, but a model in which all the structures and features useful for biodiversity, the so-called 'dendromicrohabitats' or ‘Tree Related Microhabitats’, will be realized. Dendromicrohabitats are clearly defined structures that numerous organisms (animals, plants, lichens, and fungi), some highly specialized, need for all or at least one phase of their life cycle (e.g., refuge sites, breeding sites, hibernation sites, or feeding sites). Each dendromicrohabitat hosts different species that have adapted (and in some cases specialized) to live in that place. Like the woodpecker, which builds its nest in a branch hole, or the flying squirrel, which spends almost its entire life (up to 8 years) as a larva in the trunk of a tree before emerging and spending only 2 months of adult life flying around! The tree will showcase the richness of vertical biodiversity that inhabits trees, from roots to canopy, and will help us explain the connection between these biological communities, the ecological processes essential for ecosystems' proper functioning, and how these processes benefit even humans. The tree will be 4.5 meters tall and will be a highly valuable scenic element. Another strength of this model is that its structure will be self-supporting, made of an iron core covered with cement resin and polyurethane foam, completely dismountable into smaller parts and reassemblable elsewhere. This would allow the tree to be a traveling educational object, which could later be hosted in high-profile exhibition spaces, such as museums or universities, contributing to spreading awareness about Habitat Trees.

THE DWELLING SITE (Where to see it)

The tree-habitat will initially be presented in an exhibition hall at the Civic Museum of Natural History in Milan, during the temporary exhibition 'Journey around a Tree' from September 19 to November 18, 2024. Here's a rendering of how the tree would look like:

BIODIVERSITY (You are the supporters!)

Biodiversity is all of you! Every tree needs the help of a large community to grow. Help us make it grow into a big and strong tree, with your support (even small), we can achieve this goal. Remember, in nature, even the smallest contribution can help grow a monumental oak!

THE FLOWERS (The Rewards)

We would like to thank you for your contribution, and to do so, we thought of sharing with you some interesting things about trees and the natural world. Choose which reward you prefer!

THE ROOTS (The Team)

We are a multidisciplinary team with a common goal: to study and conserve tree-habitats and their biodiversity. The Landscape Ecology Laboratory of the University of Milano-Bicocca coordinates the activities together with the Biotreeversity team (an action community) of biodiversity, arboriculture, and communication experts.

Support A HOME CALLED TREE on Ideaginger

To learn more about our activities, visit www.biotreeversity.com or follow us on Instagram or Facebook @biotreeversity.