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TreeKeepers Research
Evaluating the motivations for and barriers to long-term volunteer urban forestry stewardship

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Project Personnel

​LUFA Personnel: Jess Vogt, Camila Cortez, Annalise Nordgren
Former students: Jaclyn Meyers
Additional Collaborators​: Al DeReu (Openlands), Dr. Lynne Westphal (U.S. Forest Service)

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Project Description

Individuals volunteer for myriad reasons, including to learn new knowledge or skills, for social interaction, and because volunteering activities align with personal values. In the Chicago region, the Openlands TreeKeepers program has been engaging volunteers in urban forest stewardship since 1991. Over 2,000 individuals have taken the course on tree planting and care and passed a written exam and pruning practicum to become certified TreeKeepers. Early in TreeKeepers’ history, Westphal (1993) conducted a survey and found that the “emotional, aesthetic, and psychological values of trees” motivated volunteers. Our current TreeKeepers research helps us understand the motivations for initial involvement and continued engagement in the program. We used an online survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews with TreeKeepers at all involvement levels to examine the following research questions:

1. Why and how do individuals become initially involved with the TreeKeepers certification program? 
2. Once individuals are TreeKeepers, what are their motivations for and barriers to continued engagement with the TreeKeepers program? 

We conducted an email survey of 1,170 individuals who enrolled in the TreeKeepers program and received 324 responses (29% response rate). The average TreeKeeper is white (60% of respondents), female (49%), 60-70 years old (26%), has a post-graduate degree (38%) and works full time (37%). Fifty-two percent of respondents have remained involved with TreeKeepers since taking the course, including participating in planting (55% of still-involved TreeKeepers), pruning (59%), mulching (51%), watering (16%), teaching (11%), and/or advocacy (16%). The factors most strongly motivating volunteers were learning new things about trees (95%), protecting the environment (93%), and feeling connected to the surrounding landscape (91%). TreeKeepers are also very involved in environmental stewardship around the Chicago region: when asked about other organizations with which they volunteer, 41% named urban forestry groups and 63% named local environmental groups. In addition, 77% of respondents consider themselves environmentalists. When it comes to barriers to participation, respondents reported that the timing of events (24% disagree with the statement “TreeKeeper events are generally at a time of day that is convenient for me”) and transportation (21% agree that “Lack of transportation prevents me from attending TreeKeeper events”) are barriers. More detailed survey results are in a manuscript that will soon be submitted for publication (Nordgren et al. in prep.)

Because of the closed-ended nature of online surveys, insights on other barriers to continued engagement were limited. Thus, we developed a qualitative, semi-structured interview script and interviewed both highly involved and not involved long-time and newly-certified TreeKeepers. Interviews are presently being conducted by Camila Cortez as part of her senior thesis project, and insights will be forthcoming spring 2021 (Cortez et al.). This research will inform the future evolution of the TreeKeepers program, can help other urban forestry organizations with similar programs, as well as help urban greening professionals understand how to motivate urban environmental stewardship more broadly. 

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Products, Presentations, & Publications

Cortez C, Vogt J, Westphal LM (In progress) Digging deeper into TreeKeeper motivations. [Manuscript in progress]

Nordgren A, Cortez C, Westphal LM, DeReu A, Vogt J (In preparation) Why be a TreeKeeper? Understanding the nature of involvement and continued engagement of volunteer urban forestry stewards. [Manuscript in preparation]

Vogt J, Nordgren A, Cortez C, DeReu A, Westphal, LM, Meyers J, (Accepted) Why be a TreeKeeper? Research on volunteer urban forestry stewards. International Society of Arboriculture 2020 Annual International Conference & Trade Show, December 7-11, 2020, Virtual Conference. [Presentation] [See slides here]

Vogt J (2020) Motivations and mechanisms for urban ecological stewardship: Examining the CommuniTree and TreeKeepers programs. Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series, February 25, 2020, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. [Presentation]