294 de Guzman et al.: Residential Street Tree Stewardship Using Community-Based Social Marketing voluntary urban forestry movement through its signature Citizen Forestry approach of equip- ping communities to take on planting and caring for trees (Lipkis and Lipkis 1990; John- ston 1996). TreePeople’s partnership with the City presented an opportunity to build on its history of shaping the urban forestry move- ment by testing whether social norms around resident tree stewardship could be fostered. In the past decade, the City of Los Angeles has been the subject of urban forest efforts, research, and evaluation, particularly connected with the Million Trees Los Angeles initiative (McPher- son et al. 2008; Pincetl 2010), but the City of Huntington Park and other neighboring cities lag behind. TreePeople’s work in Huntington Park began in 2010 with an opportunity to partner with the nonprofit organization Communities for a Better Environment to quickly bring about tangible improvements as they also worked on longer-term goals to improve air quality and public health. Communities for a Better Envi- ronment invited TreePeople to use its Citizen Forester en Español program to teach commu- nity members how to plan a neighborhood tree planting. Several volunteer planting events were subsequently held, with one of the first projects initiated over community concerns that the City was slated to pave empty tree wells due to an insufficient planting and tree care budget. In 2014, TreePeople appointed a staff mem- ber and Huntington Park resident to the role of Regional Manager for this community. She built an on-the-ground program, starting with five students and growing to 30 eager par- ticipants in its first season. At summer’s end, some students noted that without their contin- ued volunteering the trees would suffer in the lingering heat, which prompted them to meet regularly to care for the trees. The youth pro- gram has since grown to more than 60 regular volunteers, with 30 trained and committed as TreePeople Volunteer Supervisors, and as many as 6 interns at one time. Most volunteers come from two local high schools, which have been instrumental in organizing numerous plantings since the program began. These efforts by the City of Huntington Park, Communities for a Better Environment, TreePeople, and dozens of ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture regular volunteers point to a commitment for planting public spaces in the community. This commitment has resulted in nearly $1 million in funding and is poised to receive more, mak- ing this study’s findings immediately appli- cable to current and future planting efforts. Research Methodology TreePeople undertook the responsibility of directing the study’s multiple phases of research. Research phases included a lit- erature review, focus groups, a survey, de- velopment and implementation of a pilot pro- gram, and evaluation of the pilot program. Literature review A literature review was conducted and its key findings informed subsequent research through focus groups and surveys. The review pointed to research gaps that warranted fur- ther inquiry, such as more granular character- ization of attitudes toward trees, perceptions of who should be responsible for trees, and perceived benefits and barriers to tree care within a predominantly Latino, environmental justice community like Huntington Park. The literature shows that, while trees are not seen as problem-free, public perception of trees is generally highly positive both among a volun- teering public and a general public (Lohr et al. 2004). Opinions toward trees are more positive for residents who have a tree planted in front of their property (Gorman 2004), and while urban residents may have varying willingness to donate or volunteer in support of urban tree programs, the notion that the government is ultimately responsible for public trees holds strong (Zhang et al. 2007). Volunteer motiva- tion aligns with the desire to improve one’s neighborhood, and personal satisfaction is more strongly tied to tree care with existing volunteers and tree planting with potential vol- unteers (Still and Gerhold 1997). Also relevant was the finding that intervention-focused pro- grams designed to make environmental behav- iors easier to engage were more effective than ones focused on consciousness raising and attitude change (Summit and Sommer 1998).
November 2018
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