Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 40(2): March 2014 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The findings here suggest the importance of wa- tering strategies for the survival and growth of neighborhood-planted trees, as well as for build- ing subsequent collective efforts in neighborhoods and homeowners associations. Such findings may have implications for nonprofits and the manage- ment of tree-planting projects. However, prior to considering these practical implications, it is impor- tant to recognize two important contextual issues: first, a word of caution about analyzing institutional variables in isolation of biophysical or social vari- ables is necessary; and second, the organizational context in which these neighborhood strategies operated as observed in this study is relevant. The authors recognize that the watering and management strategies discussed here do not occur in a vacuum: there are social and biophysical variations both between and within neighbor- hoods that may affect how trees survive and grow and how neighborhoods work together. Varia- tion in socioeconomic status, such as household income, family stage/structure, and other fac- tors may affect the ability of a neighborhood to care for trees. Differences in species composition, biophysical growing conditions, and at-planting parameters, such as nursery of origin or packaging, both within and between neighborhoods, may impact the success of individual trees. However, as many biophysical parameters are impossible to assess for dead or absent trees and water availability has been shown to be one of the most important variables influencing tree survival (Kozlowski and Pallardy 1997), it is believed that the results shown regarding watering strategy are important to con- sider. Researchers also recognize the possibility of multiple causal pathways and do not purport that there is necessarily a direct causal relationship between watering strategies and tree outcomes. Future research will consider the simultaneous influence of watering strategy and other neighbor- hood-level socioeconomic/demographic factors as they vary with tree-level biophysical parameters. The watering and management strategies dis- cussed here also occur within an organizational context that can influence their success. KIB has established a NeighborWoods tree-planting program that creates an excellent institutional environment for enduring and effective neighborhood tree man- 93 agement; in fact, their practices echo the Design Principles (Ostrom 1990; Cox et al 2010). By work- ing together to plant the trees, and KIB providing groups with the information and some means to undertake projects, KIB and neighborhoods are working as nested enterprises—sharing the burden of a complex resource management undertaking. By allowing neighborhoods to collectively choose their own watering strategies, KIB is also supporting the principle that rules should fit local environmen- tal and social conditions. Furthermore, by offering autonomy to the neighborhoods in the management of their watering strategies, KIB, as a “higher author- ity,” is recognizing the rights of the local people (i.e., the neighborhood) to devise their own rules, yet another of Ostrom’s (1990) Design Principles. Given the average rate of tree success in NeighborWoods communities within this context (an average five- year tree survival rate of 89%), it appears that KIB’s program management, which unintentionally fol- lows multiple Design Principles, is rather effective. In keeping with these ideas, the observed varia- tion in watering strategies between neighborhoods is not only expected but desired. Ostrom’s (1990) Design Principles imply the desirability of diver- sity by finding that rules should fit local conditions. Additionally, tenets of adaptive management suggest the same: variation in management strategies within a resource system or between like resource systems allows for natural experimentation (of which this study has taken advantage) and bolsters robustness of the resource sector as a whole (Holling 1995). By examining trees in neighborhoods with different watering strategies, one can determine which strat- egies work well and which work poorly in various contexts, and avoid losing all planted trees in the worst-case scenario that a single applied strategy fails. Thus, it is important to recognize that there are no panaceas in terms of one best management strategy (Ostrom et al. 2007). While higher tree sur- vival was found among neighborhoods that watered collectively, other strategies were observed that sup- port tree growth, including the presence of signed watering agreements. For example, some neigh- borhoods may be unable to find one time to water together, but may be better equipped with other mechanisms to maintain accountability, such as utilization of social media to “check in” when indi- viduals water. Effective strategies can be developed ©2014 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2014
| Title Name |
Pages |
Delete |
Url |
| Empty |
Ai generated response may be inaccurate.
Search Text Block
Page #page_num
#doc_title
Hi $receivername|$receiveremail,
$sendername|$senderemail wrote these comments for you:
$message
$sendername|$senderemail would like for you to view the following digital edition.
Please click on the page below to be directed to the digital edition:
$thumbnail$pagenum
$link$pagenum
Your form submission was a success.
Downloading PDF
Generating your PDF, please wait...
This process might take longer please wait
