Civic Science in Urban Forestry: An Introduction

Abstract

Civic science in urban forestry is a means of engaging the public in the study, management, and care of urban trees, and includes varied approaches with different disciplinary foundations. For instance, citizen science has been gaining prominence in urban forestry, with municipalities and nonprofits engaging volunteers in data collection for inventories and monitoring. Residents can also get involved in other stages of urban forest research and management, including framing goals and questions, conducting analyses, interpreting data, and applying results. Diverse forms of public engagement have brought expanded stakeholders into the fold of knowledge production and stewardship of urban greenspaces, including co-management and civic ecology practices. As municipalities, states, nonprofits, and scientists undertake these various forms of civic science, there is a need for basic research about the nature of civic engagement in urban forestry, empirical evidence about best practices for different approaches, and the impacts of volunteering on the participants themselves. This special issue of Arboriculture & Urban Forestry aims to advance the scholarship of civic science in urban forestry by addressing these topics, among others, with contributed articles. In this introduction to the special issue, we briefly review terms related to civic science to connect these interrelated bodies of inquiry to urban forestry, and present the research studies and practitioner notes included in this special issue. We then conclude with a discussion of future research needs for civic science in urban forestry, including technological tools to enable data democratization, engaging marginalized and under-represented urban communities, and supporting transdisciplinary exchanges between research and practice.

Perceptions of Tree Risks and Benefits in a Historically African American Neighborhood

“…Resident engagement is often discussed as a critical component of community forest management (e.g., [43][44][45]); however, it is rarely easily accomplished. Sociocultural and economic processes complicate the reductionist interpretation of residents either favoring or not favoring neighborhood trees.…”

On the Possible Existence of a ‘First Law of Environmental Stewardship’: How Organisations Bring Volunteers Together in Social and Geographic Space

“…In geographic terms, a CBO is a place-based entity because CBOs typically offer social programmes or solutions to their local communities (Salamon 1987) that in turn improve community sustainability and well-being (Chaskin 2003;Chen and Webster 2005). Many CBOs focus their efforts on Environmental Values 31 (4) local environmental quality (Roman, Campbell and Jordan 2018). Indeed, grassroots environmental CBOs play a meaningful role in the US environmental movement, and environmental CBOs have increased in numbers since the movement began, i.e.…”