Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(4): July 2018 2016). The article also reported that Toronto per- mit approval rates were 96%, while the approval rate is not public in the other two municipalities. Residents’ Knowledge and Support Researchers explored residential property own- ers’ basic awareness and level of support for private tree by-laws through a written sur- vey of residents in five neighborhoods during the summer of 2014, using a multi-contact ap- proach. Specifically, one neighborhood in both the Cities of Mississauga and Brampton, as well as neighborhoods in the Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough regions of Toronto, were tar- geted. The three Toronto neighborhoods were part of three distinct municipalities until 1998, are separately managed within the Department of Parks, Forestry, and Recreation, and thus have different urban forestry histories. However, Toronto’s private tree by-law and other urban forestry policies apply equally across the city. The five study neighborhoods were chosen with the goal of targeting high-canopy areas dominated by single-family homes as part of a larger study examining tree management in high-canopy urban environments (Conway and Yip 2016). These neighborhoods include proper- ties where larger trees that are regulated by the tree protection by-laws are more likely to occur, as compared to lower-canopy areas. While the target neighborhoods chosen had above-average canopy cover, the urban forest growth plans recently adopted within the study municipalities, and many other North American municipali- ties, hold the potential for higher canopy cover to become the norm in more residential neigh- borhoods. Thus, surveying the targeted areas will help assess knowledge and support in the places where regulations are most applicable, and high- responses (response ratez Etobicoke North York Scarborough Mississauga Brampton ) 245 (63%) 197 (51%) 237 (60%) 208 (54%) 188 (49%) 44 50 49 44 17 7 9 8 13 4 canopy cover (%) level tree count 189 light strategies for education about the tree by- laws that can be applied in other neighborhoods. Specifically, each study neighborhood repre- sents a census tract where greater than 80% of housing is composed of single-family homes, and the percent canopy cover is in the municipal- ity’s top quartile for neighborhood canopy cover (Table 2). Neighborhoods were then selected that had little public land and a relatively even distri- bution of canopy cover across residential prop- erty. However, the relatively new development and sparse canopy across the City of Brampton trans- lates into a lower canopy cover selection criterion. A written survey was sent to 400 randomly selected residents in each of the five neighbor- hoods in the summer of 2014. The survey had several sections, as it was part of a larger proj- ect that examined resident attitudes and actions related to urban trees. For this paper, researchers focused on the questions asking if residents knew the by-law existed, and inquired about the level of support for three aspects of the regulations spe- cific to their municipality (i.e., number and size of trees included in the by-law, requirement for replacement trees, and cost of a permit applica- tion; Appendix A). To gauge support, respondents were asked to indicate if each component of their municipality’s by-law was too strict, appropriate, not strict enough, or should not exist at all. The survey provided specific details about the cur- rent regulation, so respondents were informed of their municipality’s by-law prior to indicating their level of support for it. Researchers also asked about residents’ recent tree planting and removal activities, as well as basic socio-demographic information (e.g., age, income, education level). Potential survey participants were initially sent an invitation letter, informing them of a survey would be mailed shortly and that they also had the Table 2. Summary demographics of survey participants and tree conditions. Neighborhood Number of Neighborhood Average property- Respondents’ individual characteristics Male (%) University degree or higher (%) 56 63 53 63 55 z The response rate is calculated using the total number of successfully delivered surveys. 72 83 51 55 39 29 47 41 26 47 Respondents’ household characteristics Immigrants to Median income Fully-detached Canada (%) (CAD$) houses (%) 150,000–179,000 100 120,000–149,000 98 90,000–119,000 90,000–119,000 60,000–89,000 97 99 58 ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
July 2018
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