Volunteer engagement in urban forestry in the United States: reviewing the literature

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of a literature review related to volunteerism in urban forestry in the United States. Themes explored were inductively emergent from the research reviewed and included ‘volunteer demographics’, ‘motivations of volunteers’, ‘benefits of volunteering’, ‘volunteer engagement and barriers’, ‘value of volunteering’, and ‘volunteer recruitment and retention’. Urban forestry volunteers are often motivated by personal, social, and environmental considerations. Volunteers in urban forestry may not be representative of a cross-section of the communities that they are serving, rather they are often middle-aged, well-educated white women. Further research is required both to ascertain barriers to volunteerism and to enhance future volunteer recruitment and retainment efforts. Volunteers in the United States account for 5% of municipal tree care in urban forests – accounting for an estimated $35 million USD in value. Volunteers perform critical urban forestry-related tasks that aim to increase urban tree canopy cover through tree selection and planting efforts. Volunteers encourage urban tree survival by advocating for, as well as performing, important maintenance-related duties including the administration of supplemental watering and urban tree pruning. With proper training and support, volunteers may accurately perform important data collection efforts that may inform management decisions and urban tree care maintenance programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban forest
• volunteer
• urban forestry
• citizen science

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations: Tierney Bocsi; University of Massachusetts (UMass) Department of Environmental Conservation; Center for Agriculture Food & the Environment @ UMass. This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture – McIntire Stennis Project #34, Accession #1014171.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander J. Elton

Alexander J. Elton is an ISA Certified Arborist and a graduate student in the Urban Forestry/Arboriculture programme, in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richard W. Harper

Richard W. Harper, Ph.D., is an Extension Associate Professor of Urban & Community Forestry in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Lauren F. Bullard

Lauren F. Bullard, is a graduate of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Master of Science in Sustainability Science and the Department of Education’s Master of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Eric E. Griffith

Eric E. Griffith, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Associate with the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

Benjamin S. Weil

Benjamin S. Weil, Ph.D., is an Extension Assistant Professor of Buildings and Construction Technology in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.