Public Relations in Urban Forestry

The Method, The Media, and Whom to Reach

How then does an urban forester get his message into the hands of those he desires to reach and who are these people he wants to reach? In government we serve a series of publics. Each public is interested in one or more specific services and becomes active when it perceives these services to be less than the standards it deserves. An example can clarify this. When a city’s streets begin to deteriorate, persons in the city who would have nothing else in common began to speak in a collective voice for street improvement. Their politically elected representatives and members of the bureaucracy are alerted and made aware that a shifting of priorities must come about in order to provide funds for street repair. If and when the street repairs are made, that public ceases to be a unit and goes its separate ways. And so it is with the public we urban foresters serve. Some examples of the people who comprise our public could be the ubiquitous tree lover, persons we’ve alienated by our actions (cutting down trees, planting trees which are too small, etc.) and persons who generally desire the serves we perform on trees.

Now that we know who it is we are trying to reach, let’s examine the ways in which we reach them.

The most effective way to disseminate our message is by the use of direct public relations. As the term implies, this method takes the form of a face to face meeting with the public, by the urban forester or members of his staff. It can be accomplished by training supervisors and crewmen to deal with persons, courteously and cordially, taking time to quickly explain what is being done and why. City Foresters do this on a regular basis. Handouts given to individuals explaining a particular operation like tree trimming and planting are extremely effective. Sick tree clinics and meetings are also effective.

Indirect public relations is the other form in which we may get our message across. Newspapers, television and radio are the most commonly used media available to urban foresters. To be sure, we cannot compete with the more sensational news in today’s average newspaper, but we do offer very readible news for our public. Newspaper reporters and feature writers are constantly on the move looking for news and we are viable news sources. News that may appear old hat to us, such as spring tent caterpillars in flowering cherries and crabapples, may be an important story to many people.

The news professionals will help you bring out and develop a good story if they are alerted to it. Radio and television are somewhat more complicated than newspapers and do not lend frequently themselves to the “in depth” story. But, radio and T.V. can dramatize particularly bad insect or disease problems in a manner that the newspaper story can’t.

Now that you are armed with the method, the medium and whom to reach, how do you succeed in getting it to your public? In direct public relations, I have illustrated several ways such as meetings, handouts, use of your crewpersons and the like. Indirect public relations is also relatively simple. There are basically three paths one may use. The first is the press release.

In a press release you write up what you want to say in about 300 words or less, stamp “Press Release” on it and mail it off to the news media. One word of caution, most unsolicited press releases are thrown away before they reach print.

The second way to reach the public is the pseudo-event, a rather sinister sounding term which has been put to good use by news sources for centuries. The pseudo-event is something “staged” for the press. It is neither illegal nor immoral. On the contrary, it’s a bit of news made better. The best example of a pseudo-event I can think of is the typical car vs. tree happening with which most of us are familiar. Instead of immediately sending a couple of men to patch the tree, call the newspaper first, and let them know that a car just took a few inches of bark out of one of your nicest specimens. It’s happened before on other trees but you’d really like to call the citizen’s attention to it. A photographer probably will be dispatched to the site and hopefully your people will be there patching things up.

The third and most effective way of communicating is by the use of news tips. Get to know who covers the news beat that deals with trees and acquaint yourself with that person. In many cases you may find yourself working with a specialized writer, such as the city hall reporter and/or the garden editor, or someone on the city desk. Don’t be a pest, but call these people once in a while and point out what you think is an interesting item about trees. More often than not, they’ll use it.

At this point many of you are thinking, they didn’t hire me to write newspaper stories: I was hired as the city forester. True, they didn’t hire you to be a newspaper reporter, but your job as city forester is to take care of the trees in your jurisdiction. Good public relations will aid you in this job. It’s just as important as anything else you can do because you are serving the public better by keeping them informed. A city forester who isn’t interested in that isn’t measuring up in my opinion.

Discussion

A public relations program is not as formidable as it sounds. It doesn’t have to take up more than an hour a week and it’s really not that difficult to do. If the thought of dealing with newspapers, radio and T.V. comes hard for you, don’t abandon the whole program. Do what you feel better doing, for example distributing handouts, and instructing your crewpeople in how to deal with questions from the public. If you are still concerned, check with someone in your city government about helping with public relations. Many cities are now hiring public information aides. A telephone call to the journalism department of a nearby college or university can often bring you much help.

I believe the time spent on public relations will return more benefits by far than anything else you could do with the same amount of time. Moreover, I think it’s an important part of good urban forestry.

The application of public relations is an integral part of the practice of urban forestry. As urban foresters, we have a message to get across to the people of our jurisdiction. This message carried as part of our public relations program can enlighten the community about the benefits, problems and costs of an urban forest.

The message can be separated into two major parts: 1) specific information about trees including planting, insects, diseases, and maintenance practices and 2) exposure of a program in which taxpaying citizens can observe the actions of their government and the use of their tax dollars.

There is a real need for us to get our message across in today’s critical political climate. We, as public officials, have an obligation to inform the public about how the tax dollars are being spent. Most cities try to do this by distributing charts and graphs explaining how the dollars are allocated. The portion of the budget alloted to urban forestry is comparatively small but we must convince the public that even these funds are wisely and efficiently spent.