Volunteering for Forest Health: A Public-Private Partnership in Oakville, Ontario, Canada

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

The Forest Health Ambassador Program was designed to achieve three primary goals: increase the capacity for early detection of invasive species, track forest health trends over time, and foster public awareness of invasive species and urban forest health. The program was focused on street trees, a portion of the urban forest not covered by the other two components of the urban forest health monitoring program, which monitor wooded areas.

BioForest bridged a gap between the community and the municipal forestry department. BioForest staff trained volunteers, produced survey materials, and acted as the primary point of contact for volunteers. The local forestry department’s use of a consultant for the volunteer program made hiring a full-time municipal staff person unnecessary and required a smaller financial investment.

In order to build a network of volunteers from scratch, Oakville employed a variety of advertising and outreach strategies. Initially, advertising was conducted primarily through the Oakville Canopy Club, a Town of Oakville initiative aimed at educating the public about emerald ash borer and the threat it posed to Oakville’s urban forest. Information was distributed through the Canopy Club’s social media accounts and at community events. In the latter case, BioForest and Town of Oakville staff handed out flyers and conducted in-person outreach at Arbor Day celebrations, public “open house” events, community tree-planting events, and local environmental fairs. Oakville also used the results of a telephone survey to compile a list of residents interested in participating in the program. Advertisements for volunteer opportunities were posted in the local newspaper and on community center message boards. BioForest and Oakville staff also delivered leaflets to local high schools for display in guidance counselors’ offices.

BioForest and Oakville staff developed the Forest Health Ambassador Program protocol, which focused only on street trees located in the municipal right-of-way. The protocol was designed to strike a balance between gathering operationally useful data and ensuring that expectations of the volunteers were reasonable. The development of a standardized protocol ensured that the data generated by the surveys were consistent and useful for management purposes.

The protocol required volunteers to measure tree diameter at breast height (DBH) and to assess trees for conditions that represent a tree’s general state of health (Table 1). Volunteers assessed stem and crown condition and recorded the presence or absence of a dead top. Crown conditions were ranked based on severity—from 1, which indicates 0%–5% damage, to 5, which indicates >75% damage. Volunteers also assessed each tree for the presence of any sign or symptom of emerald ash borer, European gypsy moth, and Asian longhorned beetle. If volunteers suspected that they observed evidence of any of these insects, they recorded the signs or symptoms. Given the implications invasive insect pests have for the management of Oakville’s urban forest, it was considered crucial that volunteers be able to report on signs and symptoms of insect infestation. While Oakville currently funds regular monitoring activities focused on these three major invasive pests, the volunteer surveys further enhanced early detection capability by reporting on areas that were largely excluded from formal annual monitoring surveys.

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

The town’s annual data collection period ran from early June to the end of August. BioForest delivered mandatory training sessions in early June. Each session lasted two hours and included an indoor presentation on the protocol, followed by an outdoor exercise in which volunteers practiced the protocol on live trees. The outdoor component also included a visit to a nearby park where the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has simulated the signs of Asian longhorned beetle activity on live maple trees, for educational purposes. Each volunteer received a package containing paper maps and data sheets, writing instruments, a measuring tape, and a reference booklet containing visual examples of stem and crown conditions and invasive insects. Volunteers were assigned a survey area near their place of residence in Oakville measuring 0.25 km². This area was further subdivided into a grid of 25 cells, with a map provided for each 10,000 m² grid cell. Each of these grid cell maps was populated with Oakville’s tree inventory data and used high-quality aerial imagery, resulting in clear, accessible maps for volunteers to reference. Data sheets were prefilled with tree species and address information corresponding to the tree inventory data points on the grid cell maps. Volunteers submitted their completed data sheets either by dropping them off at Oakville’s municipal forestry offices or by scanning and emailing their forms to BioForest staff.

Roman et al. (2017) recommend that citizen science programs include the use of data quality checking procedures to ensure high quality results, and the design of the Forest Health Ambassador Program was aligned with this approach. Because Oakville used data collected by volunteers to support management objectives, data quality and accuracy were integral to the goals of the program. During the data collection period, volunteers were encouraged to submit questions and concerns to BioForest staff, who replied within 24 hours, and to meet with the volunteer, if necessary, to provide additional guidance. After submitting data, each volunteer was subject to an audit by Bio-Forest staff in order to verify that the submitted data were accurate and complete. In the case of experienced volunteers, BioForest staff conducted visual inspections on a minimum of three trees and verified all invasive insect reports. If a volunteer was new to the program, BioForest staff audited one full map grid cell, in order to ensure that the protocols were well understood. If a volunteer’s data appeared to be highly inaccurate, BioForest staff met with the volunteer to provide additional training and to correct any issues.

Volunteers contacted BioForest staff while performing surveys if they observed a condition of concern, such as a potentially hazardous tree. BioForest staff conducted a follow-up inspection and referred the tree to Oakville forestry staff, if necessary. BioForest staff immediately performed a follow-up inspection of any tree suspected of being infested by Asian longhorned beetle, due to the serious repercussions of an infestation of that pest.

In addition to providing high quality volunteer data, the program’s long-term viability was contingent on volunteers enjoying their experience. Simple expressions of thanks and appreciation are considered effective components of volunteer management that make volunteers’ experiences more meaningful and may help retain volunteers (Wolcott et al. 2008; York 2017). The Forest Health Ambassador Program highlighted volunteers’ accomplishments by holding a volunteer appreciation night after the data collection season ends. The Town of Oakville hosted the appreciation night, which included a presentation of the trends in the volunteers’ data and examples of direct management actions taken by Oakville staff as a result of the program. In 2016 and 2017, the appreciation night event included a tree planting to commemorate the volunteers’ contribution to urban forest health. The 2017 appreciation night also included a tree identification exercise, a topic in which volunteers had previously expressed interest.

PROGRAM GROWTH AND EVOLUTION

From 2014 to 2017, there was an increase in participation and in the number of annual data submissions (Table 2). Increases in participation aligned with diversification of advertising methods and dedicated efforts to recruit high school students. The number of actual annual participants was greater than the number tallied from submitted data forms, as some volunteers participated in small groups, for example, with family members or fellow volunteers. As of 2017, volunteers had assessed a total of 4,871 street trees in Oakville, equivalent to about 5% of the Town’s street tree population.

The data submitted by volunteers have benefitted municipal operations in Oakville. For example, in 2015 and 2017, volunteers reported high levels of European gypsy moth activity in neighborhoods that had not been included in the Town’s formal annual gypsy moth monitoring surveys. As a result of these reports, the newly detected pockets of gypsy moth activity were added to the annual monitoring surveys, and selective treatments were applied to high-value trees that may otherwise have gone untreated. Each year, volunteers also reported potentially hazardous trees that may have posed a risk to public safety. These reports led to immediate corrective action by municipal forestry crews, who were able to mitigate the risks by pruning or removing the trees.

Program organizers used volunteer feedback to gauge the strengths of the program and identify areas that require improvement. At each volunteer appreciation night, volunteers were given a brief questionnaire so that organizers can capture feedback on how they may improve volunteers’ experience of the program. Each year, 100% of the volunteers who provided feedback indicated that they enjoyed the experience. Volunteers also consistently cited their gain of environmental knowledge as one of the program’s strengths.

Through this feedback process, some lessons were learned that were incorporated into later efforts to improve the experiences of the volunteers. For example, in 2015, the protocol was modified to include two assessments per tree, in order to capture any seasonal variability of insects or diseases. Feedback gathered from volunteers indicated that while they understood the reason for the dual assessments, they preferred to survey each tree once, in order to survey more trees each year. The protocol was subsequently modified to reinstate single tree assessments. Other improvements made to the program include redesigning data sheets to be more user friendly and extending the length of the data collection period.

MOVING FORWARD

The Forest Health Ambassador Program continued in 2018 with a similar level of participation to the numbers seen in 2017. A total of 47 volunteers attended training in 2018, 32 of whom had submitted data by late August. The survey season was also shortened by approximately two weeks, due to the staff resources required for the coordination and execution of an aerial spray program for the control of gypsy moth in the Town of Oakville. In 2018, the program coordinators added to the training manual a simple, illustrated identification guide to common street tree species. The protocol remained the same in 2018, and the program coordinators made no major changes to the structure of the program.

It has become clear that youth represent a vital component of the past and future demographics of the Forest Health Ambassador Program. The number of high school students has increased from 2014 to 2017 and remained high in 2018. The ongoing enrollment of these students is key to growing the program in future years. Under the Ontario provincial education curriculum, high school students are required to complete a total of at least 40 hours of volunteer work before graduation (Ontario Ministry of Education 2016). The Forest Health Ambassador Program is well positioned as a means for students to fulfill this requirement, while transferring environmental knowledge and promoting outdoor physical activity. Connecting with the educational sector and reaching a young audience may also have the added benefit of contributing momentum to general advocacy on behalf of urban forest conservation in the future.

In order to increase volunteer recruitment, future advertising must focus on making better use of social media. While these have been used to some extent, many participants have indicated that their awareness of the program came from local print and online advertisements and by word of mouth. Direct, long-term connections with high schools should also be made in order to further promote the program among high school students. These connections may be made through school boards and high school environmental clubs, where there may be an opportunity to communicate volunteer opportunities directly to students. Private enterprise, through employee engagement activities and corporate donations, may also represent a demographic with greater involvement in the future.