62 Johnson et al.: Why Count Trees? Volunteer Motivations and Experiences with Tree Monitoring incomes (Still and Gerhold 1997), which aligns with Fisher et al.’s (2015) tree-planter demographics. This paper presents the results of an assessment of participants of New York City’s TreeCount! 2015 (TC2015) tree census initiative, which occurred in 2015 and 2016, along with follow- up interviews, to examine motivations as they relate to experience and volunteer demograph- ics. Structurally, the level of importance and types of motivations are known to vary by edu- cation, income, race, and gender (Musick and Wilson 2007). However, little work to date has focused on examining the intersection of volun- teer motivations and demographics, particularly for environmental or citizen science volunteers, necessitating further research on this topic. MATERIALS AND METHODS Background The City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) conducts a census of all street trees in NYC every ten years (i.e., trees plant- ed in the public right-of-way alongside streets, out- side of parks), an effort that commenced with the 1995/1996 census. Each census takes approximately two years to complete and involves the collection of spatial and morphological data for every street tree in NYC, and data about the condition of their planting spaces. TC2015 was designed for greater volunteer involvement than the previous two cen- suses, with a larger recruitment and training effort and a more sophisticated data-collection interface designed specifically for volunteers. Volunteer re- cruitment was conducted through city-wide ad- vertisements, newspaper advertisements, word of mouth, and engagement of city-based partner groups. Volunteers signed up on the TC2015 web- site and completed online training, aſter which they attended in-person training on data-collection methodology. Training focused on how to navigate the TC2015 web app (and tablet) to be used for data collection, collect accurate spatial data, prop- erly measure a tree, identify different tree species, and collect data for several other variables. Aſter training, volunteers participated in data-collection events, which were scheduled and run by NYC Parks staff or partner groups. Volunteers who ex- hibited a higher level of commitment over time ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture could also collect data on their own, once NYC Parks determined they attained a high level of skill. Volunteers collected data on 34% of all street trees citywide, which amounted to over 225,000 trees. Data Collection In collaboration with NYC Parks, an assessment was administered to all TC2015 volunteers who at- tended training, signed up for events, and were not NYC Parks employees or close affiliates. Registered volunteers with the TC2015 census signed up for accounts using an email address, and those who signed up for events were included in the sampling frame. From this list of participating individuals (n = 2,438), an email was sent with an invitation letter and anonymous link to an online assess- ment through SurveyMonkey®. Researchers then sent up to four reminders to individuals to com- plete the assessment. The assessment opened in 11 May 2015, and was closed on 01 January 2016. Researchers received 661 responses to the assess- ment, for a response rate of 27.2%. Individuals under 18 were excluded, for a total sample of 636. The protocol for this assessment was developed based upon previous tree census assessments and research findings from Fisher et al. (2015). The assessment contains 34 questions, including yes/no, multiple choice, and open-ended questions (Supple- mentary Materials 1). Questions focused on how volunteers first heard about TC2015, event experi- ences, neighborhood perceptions, civic engagement, political views, and demographics. The assess- ment took approximately 10 minutes to complete. A subset of assessment respondents (n = 241) identified a willingness to participate in a follow- up interview. From this subset, each individual was assigned to one of four categories based on whether they had a college degree (yes/no) and prior expe- rience volunteering with NYC Parks (yes/no). From these categories, individuals were randomly selected for follow-up interviews by phone. Forty individuals were interviewed, and there were three refusals. Following the receipt of informed consent via email (Rutgers University IRB#E17-086), inter- views were conducted confidentially, using a semi- structured format (Supplementary Materials 2). Interviews were held from October 2016 to January 2017, aſter the conclusion of TC2015. They lasted approximately 30 minutes and were audio recorded
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