Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(2): March 2018 At the end of training volunteers practiced field data collection with university researchers present to address issues and answer questions. Aſter each community training session, volun- teers scheduled their own survey times and teams, with little additional onsite involvement from university researchers during the data collec- tion. Occasional requests for technical assistance were handled by researchers via phone or email. Method Two Training for the remaining eight communities was altered from the training of the first group of communities. Training methods, technical assistance, and training manuals were updated and refined based upon feedback and informal assessment from volunteers in the first group of communities. Training of the volunteers in the second group of communities took place dur- ing the summers of 2011 (Brainerd, Bemidji, Mora, Royalton, Saint Cloud, Starbuck) and 2012 (Bemidji, Ely, Mankato). The training manu- al was reduced to 25 pages and included more images and less text. The ratio of time spent in classroom instruction to field instruction remained the same, as did the training content and sequence. Key differences in training from the first group of communities included: updated DBH measurement tools, updated CRW mea- surement technique and tools, and an additional two-weeks of post-training technical assistance. The second group of communities were pro- vided with diameter tapes for the measurement of DBH. The CRW measurement technique was also updated. Volunteers in the second group were provided a 15.25-meter linear measur- 77 ing tape to measure and sum two crown radii, from the trunk to the drip line, at 90 degrees from each other, to obtain an average CRW. Post-training technical assistance consisted of trainers from the university research and out- reach team joining volunteers for the first two weeks of field data collection to answer ques- tions and provide support. At no time dur- ing the technical assistance did the university researchers collect data for the communities. Agreement Assessment Of the 14 communities that participated in the emerald ash borer Rapid Response Community Preparedness project, nine communities were selected for assessment of volunteer data. Two com- munities in first group, Crookston and Morris, were excluded due to high volunteer attrition and sub- stantial portions of the survey completed by city personnel or University of Minnesota researchers. Two communities in the second group, Mora and Royalton, were also excluded, because two full growing seasons had occurred since the initial volunteer survey. A final community, Bemidji, was excluded, as a large portion of the city’s urban forest suffered damage due to high winds aſter the volun- teer survey had been completed, and a meaning- ful assessment of agreement was deemed unlikely. Assessments occurred during the summer months of 2011, 2012, and 2013 (Table 1). For those communities where assessment was not possible in the same growing season, an incre- ment borer was used to obtain a core sample. The core samples were measured and used to verify less than 2.54 cm of DBH growth had occurred since the volunteer measurements were recorded. Table 1. Details for each community: number of assessed trees, mean DBH and CRW of assessed trees, training method used, and the growing season year of the volunteer and researchers’ data collection. DBH and CRW were measured in centimeters and meters, respectively. Standard deviation is shown in parentheses. Community Brainerd Ely Hendricks Hibbing Hutchinson Mankato Rochester Saint Cloud Starbuck n 99 139 93 88 62 70 81 90 57 DBH 36 (18) 53 (28) 46 (23) 41 (18) 43 (25) 41 (23) 38 (28) 23 (10) 41 (20) CRW 10 (4) 13 (5) 11 (5) 12 (5) 10 (5) 11 (5) 11 (6) 7 (2) 10 (6) Method Two Two One One One Two One Two Two Volunteer data 2011 2012 2010 2010 2010 2012 2010 2011 2011 Researcher data 2012 2013 2011 2011 2011 2012 2011 2012 2012 ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2018
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