Skip to main content
Bloomington Urban Forestry Research Group
Indiana University Bloomington

Urban Forestry in 5 U.S. Cities: NUCFAC Grant

Urban Forestry in 5 U.S. Cities —

Ecological & Social Outcomes of Neighborhood & Nonprofit Tree Planting: NUCFAC Grant

In September of 2012, BUFRG received a National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC) Challenge Cost-Share Grant through the U.S. Forest Service to evaluate the ecological and social outcomes of tree planting in five cities across the East and Midwest United States (map below). Since this award, our funding sources (see below) have expanded to include a national set of stakeholders and partner organizations.

Read the IU press release 

Our two main research objectives are:

  1. Evaluate the ecological outcomes (benefits) and success (survival and growth) of trees planted by urban nonprofit tree-planting programs. 
    • Does the design of the nonprofit tree-planting program affect planted-tree survival and growth?
    • Does the design of the neighborhood tree-planting project affect planted-tree survival and growth?
    • What are the ecosystem services (benefits) provided by planted trees, given observed survival and growth rates?
  2. Evaluate whether tree-planting programs have social effects on neighborhoods and individuals. Are there changes in:
    • Community capacity (Social cohesion, neighborhood ties, trust)?
    • Local collective activities?
    • Individual knowledge about the environment and about urban trees?

 In other words, how do people influence trees and how do trees influence people? 

Location of nonprofit tree-planting partner organizations (blue) and main investigators

Our first objective

The first objective relates to understanding the ways that tree-planting programs can maximize the biological outcomes (i.e., ecological benefits) of the program: planting successful urban trees that survive and grow in the urban landscape. We will address three broad categories of variables in the social-ecological systems (SES) framework that might influence the success of the urban forest.

  1. Vegetative resource (trees) and the biophysical environment: What types of trees planted (e.g., planting stock, species) are the most successful under various urban growing conditions? What effect do various local environmental factors (soil volume, light availability, competition with other trees, etc.) have on tree success?
  2. The surrounding community: What characteristics of the neighborhood (social/cultural, economic, demographic, etc.) are related to tree success?
  3. Institutional and management practices: What role does management and maintenance (e.g., watering, pruning, etc.) at the neighborhood level play in tree success? What management institutions (i.e., rules-in-use, norms) are the most important to tree success?

We utilize the urban forests as SES perspective to better understand the biophysical, social, and management factors that influence urban tree success. 

See more on the urban forests as SES perspective

Our second objective

The second research objective relates to the social outcomes of tree-planting programs by asking about the indirect social impacts on the neighborhood of these programs. This question considers tree-planting programs from a different direction than the first question. We ask, how does tree planting impact the characteristics of the community? The theoretical justification behind this question is based in theories that collective action—tree planting and early maintenance (i.e., watering), in this case—may impact other forms of collective action taken by the neighborhood or other characteristics of individuals, such as a sense of neighborhood ownership or engagement in civic environmentalism or adaptation to climate changes. Interest in the social impacts of tree-planting programs on communities or individuals is growing, and in this study we search for specific, quantifiable effects of urban tree-planting programs and consider how these effects can be related to climate change adaptation strategies. 

Project Documentation

Tree-planting programs of five urban greening nonprofit organizations, all are member organizations of the Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees):

  • Burney Fischer: Principal Investigator, project oversight.
  • Jess Vogt: project manager, main point-of-contact for partners and hired personnel; lead on tree data collection methods design and data collector training, Institutional Review Board documentation and approval, tree data analysis.
  • Shannon Lea Watkins: lead on social survey development, implementation, and analysis; supports processing of interview data and analysis.
  • Sarah Mincey: lead on interview design; supports supplementary grant writing, processing of interview and survey data and data analysis.
  • Rachael Bergmann: provided general project support, including meeting planning, survey logistics and implementation, data processing, and database development and management.
  • Sarah Widney: lead on post-data collection tree data analysis (including i-Tree analysis) and writing tree reports for nonprofit partners; also provided general project support.
  • Lynne Westphal: external advisor on project; arranged for additional funding support in the form of a $35,000 U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station Collaborative Agreement.
  • Sean Sweeney: geographic information systems (GIS) technician and support; processed all canopy cover and land cover data needed for the project.

All project partners (listed above) also provided financial support.
  • USDA National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC)
  • USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station (NRS), and USFS NRS Philadelphia Field Station
  • Indiana Department of Natural Resources
  • City of Bloomington, Parks and Recreation Department
  • Garden Club of America
  • International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Arboriculture Research and Education Academy (AREA) Student Travel Grant Program
  • Indiana University Office of Sustainability
  • The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
  • School of Public and Environmental Affairs, IUB

See full grant information 

  • IU News Room press release for the NUCFAC announcement, Fall 2012.

  • Manuscripts in progress (email the first author with questions about the status of a particular manuscript)

  • Fischer, B.C., S.E. Widney, J.M. Vogt, and J.R. Farmer. (In progress) The roles of environmental nonprofits in delivering tree planting and lake monitoring services for government agencies.
  • Vogt, J.M., S.L. Watkins, R.A. Bergmann, B.C. Fischer, S.K. Mincey, L. Westphal, and S. Widney. (In progress) Young planted trees in 5 U.S. cities: Survival, growth and condition summarized by social-ecological parameters.

Listed in reverse chonological order.

  • Vogt, J.M., S.L. Watkins, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, S. Widney, R. Bergmann, L. Westphal, and S. Sweeney. 2015. Neighborhood and nonprofit urban forestry: Results of a 5-city study. International Society of Arboriculture 2015 Annual International Conference and Trade Show, August 8-12, 2015, Orlando, Florida, United States. (Presentation)
  • Widney, S.E., J.M. Vogt, and B.C. Fischer. 2015. Estimating current and future benefits of recently planted trees with i-Tree Streets: Successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Arboriculture Research and Education Academy (AREA) Student Presentations. International Society of Arboriculture 2015 Annual International Conference and Trade Show, August 8-12, 2015, Orlando, Florida, United States. (Presentation)
  • Mincey, S.K., J.M. Vogt, S.L. Watkins, B.C. Fischer, S. Widney, R. Bergmann, L. Westphal, and S. Sweeney. 2015. Neighborhood and nonprofit urban forestry: Results of a 5-city study. Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences 2015 Conference: Confronting Frontiers, Borders, and Boundaries, June 24-27, 2015, San Diego, California, United States. (Presentation)
  • Vogt, J.M. 2015. Neighborhood and nonprofit urban forestry: Results of a 5-city study. Future Earth 2015 Young Scientists Networking Conference, sponsored by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), May 24-30, 2015, Villa Vigoni, Menaggio, Italy. (Poster)
  • Vogt, J.M., S.E. Widney, S.L. Watkins, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, R. Bergmann, S. Sweeney, and L. Westphal. 2015. Tree survival in social-ecological systems: Results of a 5-city study. Association of American Geographers 2015 Annual Meeting, April 21-25, 2015, Chicago, Illinois, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., S.K. Mincey, S. Sweeney, J.M. Vogt, S.E. Widney, B.C. Fischer, R. Bergmann, and L. Westphal. 2015. The distributional results of current land-use decisions: Might nonprofit street tree plantings reduce disparity in urban canopy cover? Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, April 21-25, 2015, Chicago, Illinois, United States. (Presentation)
  • Fischer, B.C., J.R. Farmer, J.M. Vogt, and S.E. Widney. 2015. The roles of environmental nonprofits in delivering tree planting and lake monitoring services for government agencies. Advancing the Field(s) of Nonprofit Management: New Structures, New Solutions, April 16-18, 2015, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., S.K. Mincey, S. Sweeney, J.M. Vogt, S.E. Widney, B.C. Fischer, R. Bergmann, and L. Westphal. 2015. Do nonprofit street tree plantings reduce neighborhood disparity in urban canopy cover? Association of SPEA PhD Students Conference, April 17, 2015, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States. (Presentation)
  • Widney, S.E., J.M. Vogt, and B.C. Fischer. 2015. Survival, growth rates, and benefits of recently planted urban trees. Indiana Academy of Science 130th Annual Meeting, March 21, 2015, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., J.M. Vogt, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, R.A. Bergmann, S.E. Widney, L. Westphal, and S. Sweeney. 2014. Examining the relationship between collective action and collective efficacy of neighborhood residents: Do neighborhood street tree plantings yield social benefits? Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Annual Conference, November 6-8, 2014, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. (Presentation)
  • Vogt, J.M., and B.C. Fischer. 2014. Trees and people: A comparative assessment of five non-profit tree planting programs. 2014 Partners in Community Forestry Conference, November 5-6, 2014, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. (Presentation)
  • Fischer, B.C., and J.M. Vogt. 2014. Trees and people: Assessing urban greening organizations’ neighborhood tree planting program outcomes – An interactive session with researchers. Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees) Day at the 2014 Partners in Community Forestry Conference, November 4, 2014, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., J.M. Vogt, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, R.A. Bergmann, S.E. Widney, L. Westphal, and S. Sweeney. 2014. Does participation in nonprofit urban tree-planting programs improve neighborhoods? Examining the impact of collective action on neighborhood residents. International Union of Forest Resource Organizations World Conference, October 5-11, 2014, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. (Poster)
  • Bergmann, R.A., S.L. Watkins, J.M. Vogt, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, S.E. Widney, L. Westpha, and S. Sweeney. 2014. Tree survival in urban neighborhoods: Examining the role of community knowledge. Arboriculture Research and Education Academy (AREA) Student Presentations. International Society of Arboriculture 2014 Annual International Conference and Trade Show, August 2-6, 2014, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., J.M. Vogt, S.K. Mincey, B.C. Fischer, R.A. Bergmann, S.E. Widney, L. Westphal, and S. Sweeney. 2014. Does participation in nonprofit urban tree-planting programs improve neighborhoods? Examining the impact of collective action on neighborhood residents. Arboriculture Research and Education Academy (AREA) Student Presentations. International Society of Arboriculture 2014 Annual International Conference and Trade Show, August 2-6, 2014, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. (Presentation)
  • Watkins, S.L., S.K. Mincey, J.M. Vogt, R. Bergmann, and B.C. Fischer. 2013. A research design for evaluating the outcomes of neighborhood and nonprofit urban forestry. Workshop Colloquia presentation at The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, April 17, 2013, Bloomington, IN. Working Paper available (Presentation and Working Paper)
A quiet suburban street is lined with bare trees, residential houses, and tall wooden utility poles under a clear blue sky. A single red car drives along the asphalt road next to a parallel concrete sidewalk.