Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(2): March 2018 from face-to-face, to traditional media, to digital media. In addition, because of the conversational context of semi-structured interviews, researchers were able to probe deeper to understand some of the underlying drivers of that engagement. For some, the opportunity came at the right place and the right time; they were at a life stage where they were looking for something to do (e.g., retired, in transition between jobs), and the events were held in locations that were acces- sible and convenient to join. These events were perceived as being primarily organized by NYC Parks, even when they were done in partnership with other stewardship groups (e.g., Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Gowanus Canal Conservancy). Several important nuances about partici- pant experience with TC2015 emerged through the interview process that shed light on why people came, as well as on why they contin- ued to engage with the project, thereby provid- ing insight not only into recruitment, but also into retention. Numerous participants expressed a desire to explore New York City neighbor- hoods by mapping and monitoring trees. While in many cases, volunteers first engaged locally, at sites convenient to their work or home. Often- times they went on to traverse the city, mapping blocks in unknown areas, and seeing their city in a new way. This theme of exploration was a predominant code across multiple interviews. Overall, respondents described a high degree of satisfaction with the experience, for the most part finding the training and the technology easy and intuitive to learn. Specifically, some respondents were interested in learning about trees—particu- larly tree identification—and planned to use their tree identification cards in other future contexts. Others enjoyed the importance of the rewards that were offered for mapping more blocks. Par- ticipants appreciated the way in which the expe- rience was fun and “gamified” by having various levels of achievement that could be reached, which stoked a healthy sense of competition. Social dimensions of the experience varied with individual preference—some were highly inter- ested in solo mapping, others came and worked in pairs, still others made friends with strangers who they met through the process and continued to work with over the course of the campaign, and others participated as part of 67 large group training events. Numerous respondents reported highly salient citizen encounters during their work mapping on streets. The public was inter- ested in understanding what was going on, and volunteers found themselves serving as ambassa- dors for the census, for NYC Parks, and for the urban forest more broadly. Given these experi- ences of collecting data and talking with inter- ested publics, several respondents had questions about the management implications of this work. They were eager to understand how and why the data would be used to support successful man- agement and maintenance of the urban forest. Finally, when asked whether TC2015 triggered them to engage in future forms of civic or envi- ronmental action, many respondents focused instead on how they were already committed stewards. Indeed, it required a targeted question about future engagement to fully reveal the recip- rocal relationship between past experiences as stewards, involvement in TC2015, and potential future activities going forward. Researchers found that many of the interviewees had past experi- ence as volunteers or as stewards (even when they did not use that term) that influenced their interest in participating in TC2015. These past experiences ranged from being a member of a community garden, to being a citizen tree pruner, to participating in other NYC Parks stewardship events—including prior tree censuses. Many of the participants saw TC2015 as a new opportu- nity to express existing volunteerism, to partici- pate, and to give back to the local environment and community. When seeking to understand volunteerism, it is important to consider not only recruitment pathways, but also program expe- rience, and how the program fits into a person’s broader trajectory, interests, and life stage. The assessment identified incentives as a key driver for a certain subset of volunteers (more likely to be non-white, Table 2); particularly notable was the provision of tickets to the Afropunk music festi- val for mapping trees in their neighborhood zone. Linking these interviews to the TC2015 app data- base, researchers cross-tabulated coded themes of motivation with the number of city blocks invento- ried by each interviewee (Table 6). Median blocks mapped was highest for interviewees mention- ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2018
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