268 Kuhns and Reiter: Utility Pruning tively associated (2 89.084, P < 0.0002) with those who most strongly agreed that lines should be moved underground being the most agreeable to paying for it. Nevertheless, even those who strongly agreed that they wanted the lines moved underground only weakly agreed that they were willing to pay for their burial (mean agreement, 2.54). Respondents slightly disagreed (overall mean, 2.3) that large trees should be replaced with small trees, although agreement increased from 2.2 to 2.4 if they received the brochure (2 6.452, P < 0.092). When respondents were specifically asked “How much Figure 3. Proportion agreeing (agree or strongly agree) with statements about the people who do utility pruning in their area in terms of trust and care by how much they had thought about utility pruning. For each statement, agreement varies significantly with level of thought (2 P < 0.001, 0.007, and 0.0001, respectively). ; they observed or other negative interactions. However, re- spondents who had thought quite a bit or a great deal about utility tree pruning were mostly the same people who rated the importance of urban trees as high or very high, so these clearly are people who care about trees. It would be easy to write off the opinions of these people, because they are a rela- tively small group. However, it seems likely that the people who think a lot about utility forestry may be the same people who get the attention of utility foresters, public officials, and the media when they become upset over a utility tree pruning or removal project. They also may be the most likely to want to be con- sulted about and involved in decisions relating to trees and utili- ties. Schroeder (1989) stressed the importance of such involve- ment as has Odom (2006) in his work in Tallahassee, Florida, and Barnes (1988) in Seattle, Washington. McGillivary et al. (1996) reported that Kansas utilities improved their customer relations and public image by involving tree owners through seeking owner permission to prune. Alternatives to Pruning: Burying Lines and Small Trees When there is controversy involving utility tree pruning, line burial often comes up as the public’s preferred alternative to pruning or tree removal. We assessed respondents’ feelings about these alternatives by asking them to indicate their level of agreement (again using a 4-point agreement scale) with statements involving line burial and small trees and by asking specifically how much they would be willing to pay to bury lines. There was fairly strong agreement that utility lines should be moved underground to avoid pruning (mean, 2.9) but disagreement that people were willing to pay significantly higher utility rates to bury the lines (mean, 2.1) with the brochure having no effect. Agreement that the lines should be moved underground and willingness to pay were highly posi- ©2007 International Society of Arboriculture more would you be willing to pay per month in increased utility rates to help pay for burying utility lines so trees will not have to be pruned for line clearance?” and were given actual rate increases to react to (no increase, 1% to 2% more, 3% to 5% more, 5% to 10% more, greater than 10% more), nearly half answered “no increase,” not too surprising given the answers to the earlier question about willingness to pay (Figure 4). However, looking at it another way, more than half (55% to 59%) were willing to pay some additional amount for line burial to avoid tree pruning, and 8% were willing to pay 5% to 10% higher rates for this purpose. The brochure had no significant effect on this willingness to pay (2 1.291, P < 0.863). We looked further into who the people are who are willing to pay higher rates by examining how this willingness varied by respondents’ level of trust that trees would be treated properly during pruning for line clearance (see Figure 2I) as well as by income and age. Willingness to pay and trust (Figure 4) were strongly negatively correlated (232.677, P < 0.0001); respondents who expressed some level of trust Figure 4. Proportion of respondents who were willing to pay various amounts in answer to the question “How much more would you be willing to pay per month in increased utility rates to help pay for burying utility lines so trees won’t have to be pruned for line clearance?” Data are shown with and without a brochure (solid and hatched bars) and by respondents’ level of trust that trees would be treated properly during pruning (solid and open bars).
July 2007
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