Volunteer Urban Tree Surveys
By: Owen Anderson, Lydia Anthony, Jaxen Garlick, Amalia Scipioni, and Matt Wosje
Photo Courtesy of the City of Portland, OR and their Tree Inventory Project
Sourced from, https://www.portland.gov/trees/get-involved/treeinventory |
1. Provide the City of West St. Paul with a set of recommendations to use as a guide when planning and coordinating a future volunteer urban tree survey.
2. Determine the successes and challenges of volunteer urban tree surveys in comparable cities within the Twin Cities Metro area. 3. Determine the successes and challenges of past professionally contracted tree surveys and volunteer-based tree surveys within West St. Paul. 4. Assess the tree distribution in the city in relation to different socioeconomic factors, such as race and income. |
To formulate our recommendations for the City of West St. Paul, we used multiple research methods to help us reach our goals and objectives. These included:
1. Site visits to West St. Paul to get a feel for the community and to take pictures. 2. Informational Interviews with urban forestry professionals who have experience coordinating volunteer tree surveys and West St. Paul city staff. 3. Literature Reviews on volunteerism and urban tree surveys and inventories. 4. Analyzation of publicly available remote sensing data to determine the current tree distribution in West St. Paul and how that relates to race and income. |
Photo Courtesy of the U of MN Urban Forestry Outreach and Research (UFOR)
Sourced from, https://trees.umn.edu/ |
Through the conduction of our research methods we were able to formulate a set of recommendations for the City of West St. Paul to assist them with the planning and coordination of volunteer urban tree survey. The table to the right provides a broad overview of our recommendations for the recruitment, retention, and training of volunteers, along with how the city should conduct the survey.
Our recommendations for the recruitment of volunteers:
Our recommendations for the retention of volunteers:
Volunteer Urban Forestry Teams Surveying Damaged Trees
Photo Courtesy of the City of Pensacola, FL Sourced from, https://www.cityofpensacola.com/CivicSend/ViewMessage/Message/124767 |
Our recommendations for training volunteers and conducting the survey:
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