44 citizen science programs (see review in Jordan et al. 2015), these authors report personal interest, wanting to contribute something beneficial for society, and learning opportunities as top motiva- tions. Many of the volunteers expressed an interest in exploring the city through the process of con- ducting the street tree inventory, which required travel within the city and hands-on engage- ment with a variety of different neighborhoods. The authors also include recommendations to increase participation across diverse communities. Given that data quality is a concern for citizen science projects involving novice participants (Roman et al. 2017), Bancks et al. (this issue) analyzed agreement between tree data produced by volunteers and university research staff. The projects assessed were surveys and inventories conducted in preparation for emerald ash borer in Minnesota, U.S., a central management con- cern for many communities in the Midwest- ern and eastern regions of the United States and Canada (Fahrner et al. 2017; Hauer and Peterson 2017). Volunteers and researchers had the high- est agreement for genus identification (>90%). The study found differences in data quality according to training method, suggesting that additional focus on instructing volunteers in the field, as well as technical assistance, produced better out- comes. The authors recommend that decisions to use citizen science data should incorporate considerations for appropriate training methods and data specificity requirements for the project. Recognizing the value of volunteers for various in municipal forestry programs, Hauer et al. (this issue) conducted a national survey of tree activi- ties in over 660 municipalities across the United States. Two-thirds of the responding munici- palities involve volunteers in urban forestry activities, with rates increasing for large cities. Volunteer activities included tree planting, main- tenance, awareness, and fundraising. The authors estimated the number of people and hours that volunteers contribute to urban forestry across the nation, and analyzed attributes of municipal forestry programs that predicted the presence of volunteer participation. This study provides a baseline for volunteerism in municipal forestry in the United States, enabling future compari- sons, as volunteer levels and roles may change. ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture Roman et al.: Civic Science in Urban Forestry: An Introduction Focusing on trees in residential properties, which constitute a substantial portion of many urban forests (Nguyen et al. 2017), Almas and Conway (this issue) studied attitudes toward native species among residents of four southern Ontario, Canada, communities. Residential atti- tudes and knowledge about native species are relevant to species-selection choices. The authors report generally favorable attitudes toward native tree species. When exploring purchas- ing behavior, however, native trees are less likely to be purchased. These authors conclude with not only a call for educational outreach regard- ing native trees but also greater availability of natives in places where the public purchases trees. Finally, Silvera Seamans (this issue †) describes the research processes and outcomes of four collegial citizen science projects about urban spontaneous vegetation in the New York City region. Unlike traditional scientific research or even other typical forms of citizen science, these projects were all initiated by artists and design- ers working outside of formal scientific institu- tions. These projects work to document, make visible, and reshape public perceptions of spon- taneous vegetation—often considered as “weeds” or problem plants—to consider the ecosystem functions and intrinsic values of this novel urban flora. This paper shows that collegial science con- ducted by “amateurs” is not a practice relegated to history but remains a lively arena of conversa- tion and public engagement in the 21st century. FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS FOR CIVIC SCIENCE IN URBAN FORESTRY This special issue begins to illuminate some of the novel and emerging research on civic sci- ence in urban forestry, but much more remains to be learned. Based on these articles and with insight from the May 2016 symposium, we sug- gest several new avenues to advance scholarship. First, with the public involved in data collec- tion and analysis in many forms of civic science, research should explore the role of technology and cyber infrastructure to enable democratiza- tion of data access. This involves open-data con- cepts (Reichman et al. 2011; Janssen et al. 2012), but beyond simply sharing the raw data, data vi-
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