Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 44(2): March 2018 explicitly needed to achieve plan goals (e.g., Town of Oakville 2008; City of London 2012). Given the short history and lack of research regarding the influence of urban forest management plans, it is unclear if their adoption has altered the likelihood of residents planting a tree, much less a native tree. North American municipalities typically do not regulate tree plantings by residents (outside of the initial development process), or dictate which species of trees to plant. So if municipalities are going to affect the actions of residents, they must do so through education and outreach that influ- ence residents’ attitudes and ultimately impacts their actions. As a result, it is critical to establish a better understanding of residential planting attitudes and actions in relation to native species, and the factors that are related to those attitudes. Attitude is a complex construct, formed and affected by socioeconomic, cultural, and bio- physical interactions (Balram and Dragićević 2005). Knowledge of species, interest in nature, and nature experiences are the factors that best promote positive attitudes toward environmen- tal issues, biodiversity, and a sustainable life style (Chawla 1999; Corcoran 1999; Palmer et al. 1999; Palmberg and Kuru 2000; Lindemann-Matthies 2006; Martin et al. 2013; Baur and Haase 2015; Palmberg et al. 2015); these likely play a role in residents’ attitudes toward native species in the urban forest. Residents generally express a posi- tive attitude toward trees (Barro et al. 1997; Lohr et al. 2004; Schroeder et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2007; Jones et al. 2012), although Kirkpatrick et al. (2012) documented a variety of attitudes toward urban trees among residents in Australia, which they divided those attitudes into seven catego- ries: aesthetes, tree huggers, practical tree lovers, arboriphobes, native wildlife lovers, tree haz- ard minimizers, and tree indifferents. Moreover, desire for specific vegetated land covers varies among ethno-cultural communities and ‘lifestyle groups,’ and is not uniform within income classes (Fraser and Kenney 2000; Grove et al. 2006). Education about urban forestry programs can affect the attitudes and actions of residents, with people who know more about urban for- estry programs (measured by the total number of forestry services the respondent could name) more likely to support the goals of tree-planting 103 programs by donating money (Zhang and Zheng 2011). However, efforts to increase native spe- cies plantings that focus on consciousness- raising and attitude change are not always effec- tive (Summit and Sommer 1998). Thus, residents’ attitudes toward native species are likely a result of multiple factors but may not be easy to modify. Like attitudes, residents’ tree-planting deci- sions are affected by various factors, including the existence of tree-planting policy and programs, the availability of trees from nurseries and garden centers, preferences of influential gardeners and landscape designers, as well as residents’ attitudes (Kendal et al. 2012; Conway and Vander Vecht 2015). For example, Kirkpatrick et al. (2012) found residents’ attitudes about urban forest issues, including invasive species, canopy cover, and bio- diversity, can affect planting actions on their prop- erty in eastern Australia, such that residents who prefer native species tend to plant native species, and avoid non-native species. Additionally, resi- dents’ who appreciate native flora, tend to plant native flora. In a study of residents in Perth, Austra- lia, the attitudinal variable with the strongest rela- tionship to garden-type preference was residents’ attitude toward native plants (Kurz and Baudains 2012). Preferences were also highly related to pre- vailing gardening norms in respondents’ local area. Studies regarding residential urban forest native species attitudes and actions have not been con- ducted in the Carolinian Zone of Canada, so it is unclear if residents will have the same attitudes and related actions toward planting native spe- cies that residents in Australia demonstrated. Recent North American studies have com- pared residential characteristics, such as par- ticipation in tree-planting programs in relation to tree or canopy abundance (Zhang and Zheng 2011). Additionally, there is evidence that tree- planting actions vary among residents based on their socio-demographic characteristics. Locke and Grove (2016) found that municipal street tree requests are most likely to come from relatively highly treed neighborhoods. Participants in back- yard tree-planting programs are more likely to be white homeowners from neighborhoods with high socioeconomic status (Perkins et al. 2006; Greene et al. 2011), while people with higher income and education levels between the ages of ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2018
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