Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(2): March 2018 tree loss annually in populated environments (Hauer et al. 2011a). Ultimately, for the many rea- sons that incorporating volunteers is important, Summit and Sommer (1998) suggest the activity needs to be easy to engage and must provide per- sonal advantages to best encourage participation. Even though civic engagement has important values, approximately 75% of the United States pop- ulation did not volunteer their time in any activ- ity in 2015 (BLS 2016). Moskell and Allred (2013) found in two New York City, New York, U.S., neigh- borhoods that the majority (over 60%) of residents believe the government should be responsible for tree stewardship. However, nearly half of municipal foresters indicated that funding is not sufficient to meet identified needs (Hauer and Peterson 2016). In light of the importance of volunteers to sus- tainable urban forestry programs, this study sought to assess the incorporation of volunteers within the United States through five research goals. First, researchers set out to describe the current state of volunteer incorporation into municipal forestry programs. Second, the activity areas that volunteers undertook was quantified. Third, researchers iden- tified informal partnerships through organizations within a community as part of the public tree pro- gram. Fourth, researchers determined whether pro- gram strength using an urban forestry sustainability model was associated with the likelihood to incorpo- rate volunteers. Finally, attributes were ascertained that predict incorporating volunteers in municipal forestry program, using logistic regression methods. METHODS Sampling Design Tree activities in municipalities in the United States were estimated for 7,478 census-designated places. A total 1,727 places were sampled for this research, based on a national study conducted by Hauer and Peterson (2016). A complete census of all communities with 50,000 or more people occurred, with all places asked to participate. All census-designated places below 50,000 peo- ple were randomly sampled at a lower intensity: 50.9% of communities between 25,000 and 49,999 people and 10.3% of communities between 2,500 and 24,999. The sampling approach and inten- sity was consistent with four previous municipal 89 tree management projects (Ottman and Kielbaso 1976; Giedraitis and Kielbaso 1982; Kielbaso et al. 1988; Tschantz and Sacamano 1994) in the United States. The sampling design for all places at the national level relates to a person and the likelihood that they live in a place conducting any of the mu- nicipal forestry and tree care activities ascertained in the study. Within a population group (e.g., 2,500 to 4,999 people), the design allows interpre- tation at both the person and the community level. In the cases that reporting involves the percent of all communities (n = 7,478) associated with a study question, researchers adjusted by weight- ing of smaller communities (e.g., 2,500 to 4,999) to account for the sampling percent used. By ex- ample, for the 2,500 to 4,999 population group, Weight Factor = 1 / (% Sampled/100); 9.7261 = 1 / (10.2816 / 100); whereas % sampled = (sample size/total population; 10.2861 = (241 / 2344) * 100. Likewise, adjustments were made for other population groups by the methods above, follow- ing the approach of Hauer and Peterson (2016). The primary person associated with community tree activities was asked to participate. The list was created by initially asking each state urban and community forestry (U&CF) group, with contact information supplied by 41 coordinators. In nine states where researchers were unable to obtain contact information, and in places that U&CF coordinators were unable to provide contact infor- mation, the final list was created by searching a community website to identify a person (e.g., city forestry, parks manager, public works direc- tor, city clerk) who directs community tree activi- ties. A paper-based questionnaire was sent by the U.S. Postal Service using methods by Dillman et al. (2014) to the identified primary person. Both long- and short-form questionnaires containing 109 and 53 questions, respectively, were sent as part of the study, including questions, to ascertain volunteer involvement with tree care activities. The survey was conducted in 2014. In brief, a pre-letter explaining the project was followed by a second mailing with the long-form questionnaire and a self-addressed return envelope. A third reminder (postcard) was sent to non-respondents. A fourth contact, with a replacement long-form question- naire and a self-addressed stamped envelope, was sent to non-respondents. A fiſth reminder e-mail ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2018
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