Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(6): November 2018 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2018. 44(6):283–290 283 Volunteering for Forest Health: A Public-Private Partnership in Oakville, Ontario, Canada E. John Barker, Allison Craig, Allison Winmill, Joe Meating, and Candace Karandiuk Abstract. The Forest Health Ambassador Program, a joint public-private initiative in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, recruits vol- unteers from the community to assess municipal street trees for health issues and signs of invasive insects. In partnership with municipal employees, staff from BioForest, a private consultant, trains volunteers to inspect trees for a suite of structural and foliar conditions, as well as for signs and symptoms of infestation by emerald ash borer, gypsy moth, and Asian longhorned beetle. Since 2014, 4,871 street trees have been assessed by a growing base of volunteers. The program effectively increases the number of participants involved in the early detection of invasive pests, beyond what government resources typically allow. Thus, the program entails a low-cost investment that provides multiple ancillary benefits and channels community efforts into a cohesive product. The results provide data with direct implications for municipal forestry operations and help identify trends in urban forest health over time. For example, detections of relatively high numbers of gypsy moth egg masses were reported by volun- teers, allowing the municipality to take remedial action and mitigate damage. A variety of media are used to advertise the pro- gram, including community newspapers and social media, as well as communications in local schools and at community events. The program is well-suited to high school students, who are able to complete curriculum-mandated volunteer hours through the program, while simultaneously gaining environmental knowledge. The program allows for the proliferation of awareness and education pertaining to municipal urban forest issues, particularly those related to invasive species and urban tree health. Key Words. Canada; Citizen Science; Community Engagement; Environmental Awareness; Invasive Species; Monitoring; Ontario; Urban Trees. Citizen science volunteer programs engage in- dividuals with a personal appreciation for urban forests, while harnessing individual data col- lection efforts into cohesive research initiatives that can support urban forest conservation and management (Cooper et al. 2007; McKinley et al. 2017). Effective citizen science programs can have many positive results, including useful, high-quality data that may be used for manage- ment purposes (Roman et al. 2017), public shar- ing of scientific knowledge (Bonney et al. 2009), empowerment of practitioners and other social benefits (Westphal 2003), and improvements to the urban environment (Jack-Scott et al. 2013). Municipalities can use a citizen science program as an affordable way of gathering data on their urban forests while simultaneously expanding the public’s knowledge of urban forest issues. Citizen science programs can provide valu- able resources in the face of municipal budget- ary restrictions. Municipal forestry budgets may be incapable of addressing all urban forest management issues, and the added financial burdens imposed by invasive species, such as emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), can amount to a crisis for municipalities. In instances when municipal government spend- ing on urban forest management is constrained, the use of citizen science volunteers can expand capabilities for urban forest health monitor- ing with comparatively minor financial costs. This paper presents a historic case study of one municipality’s use of citizen science in a vol- unteer program to increase public awareness of urban forest health issues and to gather data on tree health and invasive insect activity from 2014 ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
November 2018
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