Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 41(6): November 2015 329 Table 1. Factor loadings for the three factors retained from EFA analysis. Higher loadings indicate greater relevance in determining the factors’ dimensions. Only loadings greater than 0.35 are displayed. Factor1: Environment, community & aesthetics Make my home look better Increase sense of community Are good for environment Pleasing to the eye Screen views Slow wind Reduce noise May increase property values Provide shade Wildlife habitat My family will enjoy in the future Fall color Bloom Eigenvalues Variance explained Cumulative variance explained 0.48 0.37 0.47 0.38 5.191 20% 20% “may increase property values” extremely reli- able (communality = 1), while “Bloom” and “My family will enjoy in the future” the least reliable (communalities = 0.25 and 0.29, respectively). Based the factor loadings, the authors applied factor labels as follows: “Environment, com- munity & aesthetics,” “Comfort & shelter,” and “Home & property” (Table 1). EFA was applied only to the responses from the pre-set categories. DISCUSSION Respondents were primarily long-term residents of New Haven, who heard about URI through their neighbors, and requested trees as a replace- ment for a removal, or for the trees’ aesthetic qualities (Figure 1). The single highest-rated reason for valuing urban trees (Figure 2) was, “are pleasing to the eye” (99% favorable rating, i.e., rated with 4 or higher on 6-point scale item). This was closely followed by “good for the envi- ronment” (97% favorable rating). The third and fourth highest-rated values for urban trees were, “make my home look better” (90% favorable rat- ing) and “increase sense of community” (85% favorable rating), respectively. The EFA findings also suggest that feelings about aesthetics and a sense of community are coupled with the abstract concept of “environment,” whereas more tangible and direct benefits (e.g., slowing wind, reducing noise) formed another distinct dimension of val- ues. When taken together, these results suggests that emphasis on aesthetics and community in planting program communication and outreach 0.55 0.64 0.74 0.59 0.55 0.82 0.81 0.94 0.44 0.39 0.48 1.481 19% 39% 1.006 11% 50% may gain more traction than emphasis on spe- cific ecosystem services (Silvera Seamans 2013), at least among the long-time residents sampled. Only one coder analyzed the open-ended quali- tative data, so no formal inter-rater reliability analyses were possible, which is a possible source of bias. However, the triangulation of the fixed response frequencies, as well as the EFA, consis- tently revealed similar values and motivations for requesting trees as the qualitative data suggested. Because tree replacement was a primary moti- vation among the open-ended responses, this may suggest that well-canopied communities are perhaps more likely to remain well-treed areas, at least with respect to the street tree population. Such patterns have been observed in Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore, Mary- land, U.S., where participation in free or reduced- cost plantings were most popular in areas with higher socioeconomic status or more existing canopy (Donovan and Mills 2014; Locke and Grove 2014). Additionally, because the majority of respondents heard about the program from their neighbors, and “sense of community” was a highly-rated tree value, neighborhood norms and values regarding vegetation and landscaping (Larsen and Harlen 2006; Larson et al. 2009) likely play important roles for request-based tree planting programs. However, the results could not tease apart how the initial neighbors had heard about the program. There are potential dynamics at play connecting neighborhood greenness, social connectivity, and street tree planting that ©2015 International Society of Arboriculture Factor2: Comfort & shelter Factor3: Home & property 0.4
November 2015
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