276 Sorensen et al.: Drivers of Public Participation in Urban Restoration Stewardship Programs toward the environment more often than they actually are (Barr 2004). Because of the com- plexity in the relationships between the social and psychological underpinnings driving indi- vidual motivations and engagement in environ- mental restoration, further research is needed to continue this work. An attempt was made to investigate what factors may lead to actual par- ticipation in stewardship events, but only 7 of the 55 individuals surveyed stated they already participated in any of the stewardship events. Social Implications It is important to note that while restoration proj- ects aim to engage members of the public, there are groups of individuals that are less likely to engage or to be engaged because of various con- straints and barriers. Important for issues of ur- ban restoration and stewardship, prior literature suggests that individuals living in urban environ- ments, particularly ethnic minority communi- ties, are less exposed to nature (Bixler et al. 1994; Finney 2014), thus influencing future desire to engage in outdoor and environmental activities. Lack of exposure and opportunity to engage with nature interplays with socioeconomic status, race or ethnic identity, gender identity, and education- al opportunity, influencing the broader cultural norms and patterns around outdoor preference and engagement noted in the literature (Ching- hua et al. 2005; Ryan 2005; Byrne and Wolch 2009). However, the current study found that the majority of park users, and those individuals willing to engage in environmental stewardship, were predominantly individuals who identified as a member of an ethnic minority group. This aligns with recent work from Fisher et al. (2015) that found minorities are overrepresented in ur- ban stewardship practices in terms of their broad- er demographic proportions. Additionally, work from Gupta et al. (2018) found that racial minor- ity groups comprised almost half of the total en- vironmental educators compared to the general population. These findings together suggest that there is a broader underestimation of the number of minorities participating in environmentally- focused efforts (i.e., stewardship, education). These conflicts in the literature suggest that further research is needed to understand how individuals ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture conceptualize urban environmental restoration in the context of their own environmentalism. Recommendations When developing materials to engage potential community partners, it may make sense to target areas that serve older community members for sustained participation. When developing out- reach materials, the current study suggests the im- portance of framing these materials to particular individuals with high environmental knowledge, self-efficacy, and a strong connection to their community. In framing these materials, research- ers appeal to people’s environmental knowledge and the potentially broader, positive impacts that people’s involvement may have on their commu- nity to engage people in stewardship activities— particularly urban environmental stewardship. Conversely, if project managers are looking to diversify the pool of stewards outside of those who are already motivated, new strategies in ma- terial development and recruitment need to be tested. For recruitment messaging to reach those less-engaged populations, these messages need to “meet people where they are” and resonate with their own cultural experiences, knowledge base, and interests. One example of this is high- lighted by Johnson et al. (2018), in which Trees- Count! and NYC Parks partnered with AfroPunk to give away free music tickets as an incentive to attract a new demographic of participants to the tree census effort. Other programmatic strategies that leverage stewards’ environmen- tal knowledge and civic awareness might take the form of mobilizing stewards as communica- tion leaders, whereby individuals could trans- late outcomes and advocate for the restoration project to other community groups (e.g., reli- gious organizations, schools, sports groups). From the collective agency perspective, creating discrete, actionable steps throughout the res- toration project that the stewardship group can accomplish, and emphasizing how these steps translate to broader community benefits, would reinforce the member’s sense of agency. While these are just a couple of programmatic strate- gies, there are certainly others that need to be in- vestigated and implemented. Taken together, this research provides a first step toward thinking
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