96 Hauer et al.: A Volunteer and Partnership Baseline for Municipal Forestry Activity in the U.S. that Master Gardeners trained in collecting tree- inventory data did well in collecting tree-inventory information. Interestingly, the highest error rate occurred with 3.7% incorrectly recording of the property address. Tree identification to the species level was correct 98.8% of the time. Bloniarz and Ryan (1996) found that trained volunteers identi- fied correctly to the species 80% of the time, and to the genera 94% of the time. Roman et al. (2017) found that citizen scientists and experts were con- sistent with 84.8% of identified tree species. Thus, regardless if one is a volunteer or professional, the credential and/or training of a person is important for precise and accurate measurements (Miller et al. 2015; Morgenroth and Östberg 2017). This study found training was common to the major- ity (80%) of communities that engage volunteers. Thus, trained volunteers are vital to effectively conduct tree activities. Training is also important if communities engage citizen science with urban forestry research questions (Roman et al. 2017). In the United States, approximately one in four people volunteered for one or more activi- ties in 2015 (BLS 2016). Collectively, a total 7.8 billion hours were logged by these 62.6 million volunteers. Compared to the volunteer hours estimated in this study, 0.02% of all volunteer- ing time in the United States was for public tree activities. A decline in volunteerism in general has occurred over the past several decades to 24.9% of the population in September 2015 (BLS 2016). Whether this trend has occurred in urban forestry is not known, as the current study pro- vides the first national volunteer assessment in municipal forestry for baseline comparison. Involving volunteers engages citizens to become better connected to a community through urban forestry activities. The citizen involvement in TreesCount!, a 2015 campaign in New York City, illustrates how a well-developed volunteer effort can successfully implement a tree activity. A total 2,241 trained volunteers inventoried 34% of the 660,000 street tree population (Cochran and Greer 2016). Involvement of volunteers through tree planting (85%) was the most common activ- ity, followed by watering (40%), per this study. The high rate of tree planting is not surprising consid- ering the estimated number of communities with Tree City USA recognition in this study was con- ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture sistent with the 3,400 communities recorded by the Arbor Day Foundation (Hauer and Peterson 2016). The Tree City USA program requires an Arbor Day observance and proclamation as one of the four standards, and a tree-planting event is a common part of Arbor Day. Formative main- tenance of trees after planting during establish- ment is important. Mincey and Vogt (2014) found volunteer watering of newly planted trees was more successful (e.g., greater tree survival) when done collectively, through signed agreements and when monitoring and sanctioning occurred. Roman et al. (2015) found excellent tree survival (95.4% to 99.4% annual survival) with volunteer tree planting. They attributed this to stewardship practices and training at tree planting, as well as maintenance during the establishment period. Volunteer tree pruning was less common (28%) in the current study, however, in some locations, citizen-pruner programs are well-structured with a rich history. Citizen-pruner programs are an example approach to engage volunteers into municipal forestry, with New York City, for exam- ple, establishing a program in 1976 (Moll and Ebenreck 1989). Several other examples exist in municipalities in other states as well (e.g., Cali- fornia, Michigan, and Minnesota). Not every community engages citizens in all municipal for- estry activities, and those undertaken are likely a reflection of community needs and interests. This study also indicated the importance of vol- unteering in smaller communities, which tend to have less volunteer participation. Less than half (42%) of communities with fewer than 5,000 peo- ple have money specifically allocated for municipal tree management (Hauer and Peterson 2016). These communities most likely have an insufficient bud- get and would benefit from volunteer participation. The study also speaks to the likelihood of com- munities incorporating volunteers into activities around urban forestry. That is, the level of anal- ysis is the community. This means researchers cannot say anything about the motivations for individual volunteers’ participation in urban for- estry activities. Future studies on volunteerism in urban forestry should more thoroughly investigate why individuals might participated in urban forestry activities, as well as the influ- ence of the demographic and social factors
March 2018
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