Poster Abstract Details

Author(s):
Jana Dilley

Affiliation:
University of Washington

Presentation Type:
Poster

Topic Area:
Urban forestry and urban agriculture

Abstract Text:
Across the country, cities are setting goals to increase canopy cover in order to capture the many environmental, economic and social benefits that urban trees provide. These benefits include making cities more liveable, reducing the people’s desire to live elsewhere and create sprawl. Engaging residents to plant trees on single family residential property is critical to meeting canopy cover goals because single family residential property makes up the largest land use in most cities. Seattle is no exception – 56% of the city is single family property. Thus the individual decisions of private landowners have a large influence on urban canopy cover and health. Urban forestry programs in many cities focus on publically owned parks and right of ways – zones which in Seattle make up less than 15% of the city. Local governments and organizations wishing to protect and expand canopy cover need to work closely with homeowners to foster tree planting and retention. Many cities rely on regulation, which can only maintain (not increase) single family canopy cover. Little research has been done on how to best engage homeowners in tree planting and retention through incentive and other non-regulatory approaches. This research addresses these questions using the community based social marketing framework. By examining the reasons why homeowners make choices both for and against tree planting and retention, we can design programs and policies – such as incentive programs and effective communications strategies – to create and maintain canopy cover on private property. In a collaborative project between the University of Washington and City of Seattle, 2,400 single family homeowners were surveyed. Results show that while homeowners are planting trees, they are planting small trees and not the large trees needed to increase canopy cover and maximize benefits. Homeowners also intend to plant fewer trees in the future than they have in the past. Regional differences can be seen in where homeowners are likely to plant in the future. Further analysis will soon be completed to determine the factors most likely to influence a homeowner’s decision to plant or retain a tree.