By Jacqueline Hamilton, Murray M. Humphries, Heather Brown, and Elena M. Bennett

Original watercolour by the lead author.

Read the full paper here

Diversity of species and size classes is a common metric of tree community resilience, so it is not surprising that in urban areas, public land managers often aim to achieve diverse tree populations. However, private lands including yards and gardens can sometimes support more diverse tree populations, despite not necessarily setting a goal of diversity. We wondered if and how people’s relationships with trees might help understand this “paradox” in diversity, since the ways people feel about and act toward trees can also shape which trees survive.

In this study, we set out to understand the relationship between tree diversity and care across private and public lands in a peri-urban landscape in Canada. We surveyed 121 random tree plots pre-designated into forest and non-forest (such as yards) patches of trees. We conducted interviews with 31 landowners and managers responsible for some of these patches. In the interviews, we asked about their relationship with their trees including benefits, challenges, and how they act toward their trees. We wanted to know how care, including feelings and actions, was expressed by private landowners and public land managers, and how this related to tree diversity.

We found differences in tree diversity between public and private lands in non-forest settings. We also found differences in the ways people care for trees on these lands. Public land managers expressed care about trees as communities, through intentionally thinking about diversity and resilience. But they were often responsible for many trees across large areas, and the people making decisions were not always the ones doing the day-to-day care work like watering and monitoring trees. Private landowners tended to express care about particular trees and some even expressed enjoyment taking care of their trees. This form of care, where the same people have emotional connection, responsibility and ability to undertake care work, might support tree survival and therefore diversity, particularly when many different people are caring for trees for unique and personal reasons.

While this study was undertaken in one landscape, our findings raise interesting questions for future research. Specifically, how might supporting people’s connections to and ability to give care to the trees around them impact urban tree diversity?