If you live in an area forested with American chestnuts, elms, ash, white oaks, or hemlocks, you can help scientists study what makes some trees susceptible to pests or diseases and others resilient.

The TreeSnap app, developed by the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the University of Kentucky, asks users to snap a picture of any of these trees in a forest and upload it to the app along with some basic information. The app logs the approximate location (to protect user's privacy, it randomizes the location within a 5 mile radius) so that scientists can locate the trees for future research projects.

The app does not yet identify the trees, so users must already know what kind of tree they are looking at.

The universities partnered with the American Chestnut Foundation to study chestnut blight; the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station to study Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer; the Forest Health Research and Education Center to study white oak trees; and the Hemlock Restoration Initiative and Forest Restoration Alliance to study hemlock woolly adelgid.

TreeSnap is free and available to Android and iOS users nationwide. For more information and to download the app, visit treesnap.org.