Whats a Tree Canopy Walkway?
EcoTarium’s Tree Canopy Walkway is a series of platforms and rope bridges suspended more than 40 feet above ground among a grove of oak and hickory trees. Opened at EcoTarium in July 1999, it was the first in the country available for public use. The walkway is modeled after those built for scientific research in tropical and temperate forests around the world. Only in the last 20 years have scientists begun to document the tremendous diversity of life high in the tree canopy. Researchers have estimated that millions of undiscovered species– many of which are insects – are hidden high above our heads in the leaf line of the trees. Scientists have developed ingenuous techniques for accessing the canopy layer of the forest, including climbing ropes or ladders, inflatable “rafts” and “sleds” dropped from hot-air balloons, and tree canopy walkways. EcoTarium’s Tree Canopy Walkway was designed and constructed by Canopy Construction Associates, based in Amherst, Mass. The associates, all ex
