Evidence-Based Forest News

Intro to Ground Truth

Ground Truth is a publication documenting our journey to make environmental data free and transparent.

Image of boreal forest from the above, looking down about 200 meters.
Image of boreal forest from the sky.

Our Mission

Our mission is to make environmental data free and transparent. Ground Truth is a publication documenting our journey.

We started as tree planters. We love the job and the industry. So we want to produce trees for environmental causes, not just for logging and energy companies. Then we realized, outside of forestry there’s no publicly available data on tree planting—only marketing campaigns with little evidence. We then realized this problem goes beyond reforestation and affects the entire environmental field, even other sciences and medicine. Thus, it became our mission to make environmental data free and transparent and to share this journey with the world.


Three dirty tree planters, one is the founder Chris Harris, mapping tree planting in 2002.
Chris early tree planter days. Planning tomorrow's tree adventure.

The Solution

As the legend Peter Drucker said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Managing the problems of our time requires public accountability and access to data. Greenwashing thrives due to a lack of data transparency. The solution is to make environmental data free and transparent.

This requires a shift in perspective, demanding that publicly available data back up all green claims and activity. Plenty of business takes place in the public sphere. All consumer products and publicly traded companies compete openly in plain view. Even sports! The best players get ahead because the score and stats are transparent.

Public open source tree planting data on restore.eco.  Showing polygon and site data.
Public tree planting data on Restor.eco. Not our site, we're just fans.

Our Job

Our job is to answer this question: How can we make all environmental data public? Can environmental claims require data to back it up? How can we put the truth before cat videos, greenwashing, and even the experts who sell thier insights for a fee? Can we set a precedent for evidence-based progress?

We are a publication documenting our journey to answer these questions. We create videos and articles, ask questions, and talk to experts. We’re hype men and women for the data scientists, authors, innovators, and practitioners who help make environmental data free. We don’t generate revenue; we're not sponsored and don’t run ads. We don’t have much of a business plan to be honest, because we’re going to figure this out together, with you, in a public forum. Please write, share, comment, and engage. We’re stoked to be on this journey with you.

Chris, Founder canoeing in Australia.
Chris canoeing.
Headshot of Stewart Moir - head writer and content producer for Ground Truth
Stewart Mior - head writer and content producer for Ground Truth