Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(2): March 2018 Researchers found initial motivations varied by demographics, through integrating emergent motivation themes from open-ended questions with quantitative demographics data. Volunteer turnout was predominantly composed of well- educated, middle-aged, white participants, typical of environmental and citizen-science volunteers. Underrepresented were NYC residents of color and individuals without college degrees. Men were also underrepresented, although the survey sample may not be representative of gender (see Response Bias Checks). Demographics correlated with different motivations included race, income, political views, and proportion of life spent in New York City, sug- gesting opportunities for targeting recruitment efforts to better reach underrepresented popula- tions. Identifying differences in motivations by demographic characteristics highlights an oppor- tunity for diversifying and increasing turnout through altering recruitment strategies, as motiva- tions can serve as a way to build a constituency of volunteers (Gobster and Hull 2000). For example, use of Afropunk concert tickets as an incentive (Incentive theme) was a motivating factor men- tioned more oſten by non-white respondents than by other populations taking the assessment. Rela- tive newcomers to New York City were more moti- vated by making a contribution (Contribute theme) than long-term residents. Newcomers may be seeking to enhance their connection with the city and its inhabitants, whereas long-term residents already have such connections in place. Long-term residents were motivated by having past experi- ence with monitoring trees in New York City (Past Experience theme). Formal education level and age alone did not appear to be a factor in differing motivations mentioned, an interesting result given how 86.8% of assessment respondents had at least a bachelor’s degree and the mean age of assessment respondents was 44. Overall, the logistic regression models were well-specified for some motivation themes, but could not be well-fit for others (e.g., Outdoors and Social), suggesting some themes may be universal across demographic groups. The assessment was administered immediately aſter an individual’s involvement in training and one mapping event. Interviews aſter completion of the TC2015 census, more than one year later, identified some shiſts in responses between when 69 volunteers first began tree-monitoring efforts (assessment) and aſter the program had concluded (interviews). These shiſts may be due to more experience with the program or differences in detail between the assessment and interviews. In comparing themes mentioned over time, research- ers did observe some trends in Table 7, whereby some themes were mentioned more initially (Val- ues, Contribute, Educate, Fun) and others emerged more in interviews (Past Experience, Social). This may be due in part to a bias in who agreed to follow-up interviews. Also, a new motivation emerged from the interviews: Explore, perhaps due to more time volunteering with TC2015 or because of the more in-depth nature of interviews. Explo- ration was a large part of the volunteer experience, whether it was exploring neighborhoods nearby or across the city from where individuals lived. The theme Explore was also related to higher levels of participation by the interviewee. With this and other motivations, the amount of effort a vol- unteer contributed to TC2015 appeared to vary by the factors motivating the individual. Incentive as a motivation fell on the other end of the spectrum: it brought individuals out, but they did not sus- tain participation at high levels, when compared to other motivating factors. For TC2015, incen- tives were not tied to continued participation; this finding of lower participation by incentive- motivated individuals matches with current research on incentives and performance (e.g., Cerasoli et al. 2014). However, high levels of par- ticipation are not possible for all people, due to barriers like time and family needs. From a pro- gram perspective, a little participation by many can also be a desirable goal. Participation now can also lead to participation in other volunteer efforts later. As noted earlier, previous studies have shown stewardship volunteering to be an on-ramp for future volunteering and civic participation (Fisher et al. 2015); through interviews, researchers see this result mirrored here with citizen-science volunteers. To advance understanding citizen-science par- ticipation in cities, more work is needed on bar- riers presented to non-participants. Interviewing younger and underrepresented adults to examine barriers to participation in citizen science, Meren- lender et al. (2016) found the primary barrier was not enough time, because of work and a focus on ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2018
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