What do they like about trees? Adding local voices to urban forest design and planning

• Main Authors: Sara Barron, Stephen Sheppard, Robert Kozak, Katherine Dunster, Kanchi Dave, Doris Sun, John Rayner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Trees, Forests and People
• Subjects: Urban forests; Urban trees; Local preferences
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666719321000558

Local preferences and priorities for trees and greenspaces are important considerations when planning and designing a community's urban forest. Local residents can provide insight into place-specific contexts such as local esthetic preferences, social systems, cultures, and attitudes to inform appropriate design responses. Residents also inform researchers of key local issues that may impact urban forest configurations, and may differ from expert opinions. This paper reports on a case study from a suburban community in Canada that used a combination of methods to reveal new, place-based information to inform more contextual design for a community's future urban forest. Results reveal that the current urban forest in the community does not reflect the participants’ preferences and differs from experts’ priorities. The findings suggest issues that should be considered in future urban forest design and planning processes.