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Identify stakeholder attitudes and perceptions about the urban forest and its management
The desires, attitudes, and perceptions of stakeholders and decision-makers can have a large impact on your urban forest plan. You may need cooperation from multiple groups to develop, fund, and implement the plan. A site-level plan may only need the support of the property manager or administration. In contrast, municipal plans typically require wider public input and support.
You can use various methods to assess the attitudes and opinions of stakeholder groups. For small groups (e.g., site management or staff), meetings and interviews may be used. For larger stakeholder groups (e.g., city residents), similar meetings can be held with representative focus groups. Alternatively, you can use public polling methods to assess larger samples of the population.
The goal of this step is to identify attitudes and perceptions. You can also assess how strong attitudes or opinions are by presenting what-if scenarios. Many companies and some universities provide services related to polling and assessing attitudes.
Public polling
Polls are commonly used to assess opinions. The concepts behind public polling may seem simple enough, but survey reliability can be affected by a wide range of factors. If survey design or execution are flawed, results may be meaningless or misleading.
Interviews or self-completed questionnaires are the main ways to conduct polls. If a provider / client relationship exists, user feedback surveys (mail or online) can be used to assess client satisfaction. The table below summarizes some characteristics of survey methods that may be appropriate for a local area.
Survey method |
Cost |
Notes |
telephone interview |
moderate for local area |
-in local area, sample may not include people that use mobile phones only (no land line) |
door-to-door interview |
high |
-can target specific local geographic areas |
public area interview |
moderate |
-interviews at local shopping centers or public events |
mail survey |
moderate |
-low return rate can be a problem |
online survey |
low |
-very easy to execute |
The questions used in a survey need to be carefully designed and tested. Questions should be clear. Questions that might be interpreted multiple ways will not provide useful results. Avoid biasing answers by carefully phrasing questions. The order of questions or answer choices may also influence responses. You can alternate question order and use alternative question wording in different surveys to control for these sources of bias.
You may wish to include some basic demographic questions (age, sex, length of residence, owner/renter, income level, etc.) in your assessments. This allows you to see how attitudes may vary among different subgroups.
Example
The City of Pineville, LA commissioned a sample telephone survey of residents to assess attitudes about the urban forest. The survey asked respondents to rate the importance and condition of trees in the city, including the importance of trees in specific areas such as parks, parking lots, and city-owned land. Several questions assessed attitudes about development in the city and the relationship between development and preservation of existing trees. Other questions looked at how residents perceived various benefits provided by the urban forest. Residents felt that trees contributed more to aesthetics and community image than to property value or energy savings. The report is available for download from the Urban Forestry South Expo website.
The City of Gresham, OR, used an online survey to assess community attitudes about the urban forest as it developed its urban forest plan. A few questions from the survey are shown below:
Were you aware that Gresham is developing an Urban Forestry Management Plan? Yes/no
Studies have shown that in the past 20 years, the "urban forest" has declined by 20 percent for cities within the Pacific Northwest.
-Do you think the condition of Gresham's urban forest has improved, declined or remained the same in the last 10 years CITY-WIDE?
Improved / Declined / Remained the Same / Don't Know
-Do you think the condition of Gresham's urban forest has improved, declined or remained the same in the last 10 years IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
Improved / Declined / Remained the Same / Don't Know
If you do not have street trees along your street frontage, which of the following factors affect your decision about adding street trees? (check all that apply)
-There is not enough planting space due to sidewalks, utilities and other conflicts.
-I want a tree but unsure when I will have the time to plant it.
-I don't want to block my view.
-I'm concerned that trees might cause property damage.
-I don't want to rake leaves.
-I think trees are too expensive to purchase.
- Other (please specify)Using a scale of 1 (Least Important) to 5 (Most Important), please rate the importance of the following types of tree planting projects in the City of Gresham:
1 - Least Important 2 3 - Neutral 4 5 - Most Important
-Tree planting workshops and tree-related workshops.
-Tree plantings along major roads and within medians.
-Tree plantings within existing city parks and natural areas.
-Tree plantings in neighborhoods along residential street frontage.The City of Portland, OR, cited results from a community survey in its urban forest management plan
Positive emotional states are also associated with being in or looking at things that are pleasing. Trees and vegetation provide much of the color, variety, texture, shape and sound that are pleasing in all seasons of the year. The Visual Preference Survey, conducted in Portland in 1993, showed that small parks and open spaces were uniformly desirable in all settings of the city. Other studies have shown that people prefer scenes that show well-maintained trees and vegetation. Research substantiates what people have known intuitively — trees and natural areas bring pleasure and provide benefits beyond their economic values.
City of Portland Urban Forest Management Plan 2004 p 21
Planning Questions
- Which stakeholder groups are likely to influence the success of the plan?
- How do important stakeholder groups view and value the urban forest?
- What specific issues do we need to include in the stakeholder attitude assessment?
- Does management/administration understand why the urban forest needs to be actively managed over time?
- What aspects of urban forest management have the greatest impact on support for the management program?
- How do state or federal regulations (e.g., California's AB32,The Global Warming Solutions Act ) affect support of urban forest management activities?
Work plan
Use this worksheet to assign tasks related to identifying attitudes of key stakeholders |
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Key questions to answer |
Target group (e.g., staff, council, residents) |
Methods (e.g., poll, survey, focus group) |
Person(s) responsible |
Target completion date |
Save to work plan
Outline
| Add content related to community values: |
| Add content related to local concerns and issues that are not recorded elsewhere |