44 Dampier et al.: A Comparison of Arborists' and Horticulturists' Preferences or paraprofessionals who may have maintained Tsuga spp. within the infestation range of HWA; iii) They lived travel or worked within and in-person driv- ing distance of the research site, for ease of participation. These criteria were employed because the research team wanted to recruit participants with these “particular features” rather than participants without specialized knowledge from the general population (Ritchie et al. 2003). The team also anticipated that recruitment from the general popu- lation would have led to lower overall participa- tion rates since the study required that participants attend in-person for approximately one hour. It was anticipated that only individuals interested in the topic would fully commit to the survey process and the required time. Furthermore, the research team anticipated increased engagement from par- ticipants that were already interested or experi- enced in the arboriculture or horticulture sector. Participant recruitment was carried out through several e-mail notices that were sent via list-serves from Cornell University Cooperative Extension associations in the New York, U.S., counties near the study site, with emphasis on Westchester and Putnam Counties. In order to estimate the pro- portion of ISA Certified Arborists® who partici- pated, cities, towns, villages, and hamlets within Westchester and Putnam Counties were searched within the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) “Find a Tree Care Service” database (ISA 2014). This online tool is widely used by tree care customers when locating professional, qualified tree-care service providers in their communities; it may also provide a good estimate of how many cer- tified arborists are in a given community or region. Over the two-day period, participants in groups comprised of three to 12 individuals were lead to the T. canadensis and T. chinensis specimens hourly. Participants provided their background informa- tion and were categorized based on their response as either “arborist” (n = 21, 38%) or “other” (n = 34, 62%), which included horticulturists, landscapers, foresters, nurserymen, and master-gardener vol- unteers. They were then asked to complete the survey, which took approximately 30 minutes. Participants were asked not to talk to each other while evaluating the specimens and completing the survey. Additionally, research team members ©2015 International Society of Arboriculture joined the groups and took participant observa- tion field notes. Aſter the completed surveys were returned, participants were debriefed and pro- vided with a short in-field training session that included a discussion contrasting and comparing the features of T. canadensis and T. chinensis. Participant responses were then analyzed in PASW Version 18 (SPSS 2009). Cross-tabulations were established in order to conduct data summaries and to conduct Fischer’s Exact Tests (Field 2009). Affirmative and negative responses were pooled to allow for a series of 2 × 2 cross-tabulations. For example, “strongly agree” and “agree” were pooled, as were “strongly disagree” and “disagree.” Survey questions that were either leſt blank or indi- cated “no opinion” were disregarded in the data analysis. A total of 55 participants completed the survey, but since unanswered questions were not included in the cross-tabulations, partici- pant counts ranged from 36 to 51 (unpublished). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It was estimated that there are approximately 130 to 170 ISA Certified Arborists based in Putnam and Westchester Counties. Therefore, approxi- mately 12% to 16% of arborists in these counties participated in this research. Furthermore, it is unlikely that all of the participants who self- identified as certified were in fact certified with ISA. Although it is acknowledged that results can- not truly be inferred beyond the actual participants, their survey responses may be indicative of other local arborists (and horticulturists). Since unan- swered questions were not included in the cross- tabulations, some questions had less than a 55 par- ticipant response rate. Arborists’ responses ranged in number from 15 to 19 and others’ responses ranged in number from 26 to 33 (unpublished). The multiple cross-tabulations presented in Table 1, indicate that there was no statistical association (FET, P > 0.05) between participant backgrounds (e.g., arborists’ versus others’) when compared to other responses. The lack of statistically significant associations suggest that participant background has no bearing on preferences relative to specimen partiality, the ability to tell the difference between specimens, or their purchase inclination based on natural pest-resistance, or fewer insecticide appli- cations required (Table 1). Overall, participants
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