Management & Institutions (M). Second-, third-, and fourth-tier variables relating to (M), one of the five core first-tier factors in the UFSES framework. Abbreviations in the “Other UF frameworks” column correspond to shorthand citation keys for frameworks described in Table 2. Notes for Table 3 through Table 9 appear in Appendix D. UFSES (urban forest social-ecological system); UF (urban forest); NLCD (National Land Cover Database).
| Number | Second-tier variable | Third-a and fourth-tierb variable(s) | Description and possible values | Other UF frameworks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Operational level maintenance activities | Specifics of on-the-ground maintenance activities, including tree care activities as well as planting and site preparation. | SUS, MAIN, MOS, VULN, NBS, PAT | |
| M1-1 | Type of maintenancea | Planting (including site preparation), pruning, watering, mulching, staking, soil and nutrient management (aeration, fertilizing), tree removal, pest treatment(s), other cultural management practices, etc. | MAIN, SES1 | |
| M1-2 | Party performing the maintenancea | Municipal crews (forestry staff, generalist public works staff), public utility (electric, gas) company, contracted arborists/landscapers, local nonprofit staff, homeowners, volunteers (including who manages the volunteers), etc. | MAIN, SES1 | |
| M1-3 | Intensitya | How much maintenance is performed, (e.g., how much of the crown is pruned, how much water is given). | MAIN | |
| M1-4 | Frequencya | How often maintenance is performed (e.g., on a 4- or 6-year pruning cycle, watering once per week). | MAIN | |
| M1-5 | Durationa | For how long maintenance is performed (e.g., for just the first growing season, throughout a tree’s life). | MAIN | |
| M1-6 | Extenta | What part of a tree, or which trees, are maintained (e.g., removing branches below a desired clearance height or removing no more than X% of total canopy, maintaining only trees on heavily trafficked streets). | MAIN | |
| M1-7 | Seasonal timinga | When during the year (e.g., year-round, leaf-on, April–November). | ||
| M1-8 | Maintenance costsa | Monetary costs of operational-level maintenance activities; may also include the monetary value of unpaid volunteers who perform tree maintenance; different from total municipal tree budget (H9-3). | MAIN, BEY, GOV2 | |
| M2 | Data/record keeping practices | What kind of data is collected; when and how data is collected; in what form and/or for what reason/purposes data is used; how regularly is it updated; etc. (e.g., 100% public tree inventory kept up-to-date with planting and removal activities, prunings, and other tree maintenance entered into record-keeping system when performed). | NBS | |
| M2-1 | Street tree inventory practicesa | On-the-ground, virtual (street-level imagery), windshield, or other. | SUS | |
| M2-1a | Method of data collectionb | On-the-ground inventory with smartphones, paper records, Lidar-based individual tree inventory, etc. | ||
| M2-1b | Frequency of updatingb | Sporadically/as needed, at regular intervals, as work is performed, etc. | ||
| M2-1c | Specific variables gathered during inventoryb | List of variables included in inventory, such as species, location information, condition/maintenance needs, etc. | ||
| M2-2 | Canopy cover dataa | What kind of spatial data is the canopy cover data generated from? Lidar/high-resolution images, NLCD data, photo interpretation, digitized aerial photos, etc. | SUS | |
| M2-2a | Resolution of canopy datab | 30-m resolution, 3-m resolution, point sampling, etc. | ||
| M2-2b | Frequency of updatingb | Sporadically/as needed, at regular intervals, etc. | ||
| M2-3 | Tree care recordsa | Tree care work: most salient for public trees, trees in parks or along the public right-of-way (or, for institutional urban forests, semipublic trees on institutional properties, e.g., college campuses). | ||
| M2-3a | Planting records/locationsb | How/are records of tree planting locations kept, how often is planting data updated, etc. | ||
| M2-3b | Pruning records/locationsb | How/are records of tree pruning/trimming activities kept/updated, etc. | ||
| M2-3c | Removal records/locationsb | How/are records of tree removals kept/updated. | ||
| M2-3x | Other maintenance records/locationsb | Inspections, pest treatments, etc. | ||
| M2-4 | Transparency of dataa | Data availability and transparency to other interested parties, the general public. | ||
| M2-5 | Data/record keeping costsa | Direct, monetary costs of data/record keeping. | ||
| M2-X | Other data/record keeping practicesa | Private property tree data, etc. | ||
| M3 | Proactive management activities | Urban tree and forest management activities separate from operational level maintenance activities (M1)(Note 21). | GOV1, VULN, MOS, GOV2, NBS | |
| M3-1 | Urban forestry strategic or master planning effortsa | More holistic than day-to-day management planning or operations level plans; may involve strategic assessments of planting opportunities, greenspace or greenway plans, etc.; master planning efforts may involve some or all of M3-2 through M3-9. | SUS, MOS | |
| M3-2 | Tree preservation planninga | Plans, policies, or procedures, including permitting, to protect trees during construction or redevelopment efforts, including municipal capital improvements; protecting existing mature trees and tree canopy is crucial to ensuring the continued benefits these existing trees provide. | SUS | |
| M3-2a | Tree preservation planning (during new construction/development)b | Practices to manage/protect trees (on both private property and public right-of-way) during the construction of completely new buildings on previously non-built-up lands (e.g., remnant woodlands or other semitreed habitat, treed vacant lots, farmlands with tree breaks). | ||
| M3-2b | Tree preservation planning (during redevelopment/renovations)b | Practices to manage/protect trees (on both private property and public right-of-way) on existing built-up lands during construction that could include razing existing structures, digging new foundations, creating additions, or otherwise altering a property on an existing urban lot. | MORT | |
| M3-2c | Tree preservation planning (during municipal capital improvements)b | The extent to which municipal improvement projects in the public right-of-way (e.g., water/sewer, road, sidewalk repairs or upgrades) preserve or fail to preserve mature trees in the right-of-way; indicates how the city values green infrastructure as an asset class relative to the improvement of grey infrastructures like roads and sewer lines. | ||
| M3-3 | Climate change planninga | Plans, policies, or procedures to consider or alter urban forest maintenance and management practices in response to the changes in precipitation, temperatures, storm frequency and intensity, and other local- to regional-level impacts resulting from global climate changes. | CC | |
| M3-4 | Risk assessment proceduresa | Plans, policies, or procedures to assess tree risk or hazard potential, either after a physical disturbance, such as a storm or fire, or in response to resident requests (and follow-through on these plans). | SUS, MORT, BEY | |
| M3-5 | Pest/disease management planninga | Plans, policies, or procedures for how to proceed in managing major tree pests or disease infestations (e.g., emerald ash borer [Agrilus planipennis]). | ||
| M3-6 | Natural areas planninga | Plans, policies, or procedures for how to manage natural areas, nature preserves, or larger tracts of more “intact” urban forest/woodlands, including plans for the connectivity of natural areas or greenways. | SUS | |
| M3-7 | Equity considerations in planninga | Considerations made for the equitable distribution of trees/urban forest resources and of maintenance/management efforts based on race/ethnicity, income, or other socio-demographic dimensions, as well as based on existing trees/canopy. | MOS | |
| M3-8 | Knowledge transfer activitiesa | Public education efforts of stakeholder groups such as municipal governments, nonprofits, universities, and others; includes fact sheets, workshops, advertising/social media campaigns, etc. | GOV1, GOV2 | |
| M3-9 | Evaluation and assessmenta | Program evaluation, quality improvements, assessments, audits by internal or external parties, etc.; response to the results of these evaluations could also be documented. | GOV1 | |
| M3-9a | Participation in standards programsb | Participation in urban forestry assessment or standards programs, such as the Arbor Day Foundation Tree City/Campus/Line programs and similar (Note 22). | ||
| M3-10 | Proactive management costsa | Direct, monetary costs of proactive management (e.g., cost of a consultant-prepared urban forest management plan). | ||
| M4 | Other reactive management activities | Response to storms, pests, or other disturbances, resident/311 requests like debris pick-up (Note 23). | VULN, MORT | |
| M4-1 | Costs of reactive managementa | Direct, monetary costs of reactive tree maintenance activities (e.g., storm clean-up costs, tree removal costs due to lack of pest management, etc.). | BEY | |
| M5 | Collective-choice level institutions | Rules and strategies about operational level maintenance, record keeping, and proactive management activities (e.g., who and how it is decided that tree maintenance is conducted at a particular intensity, frequency, etc.); monitoring and enforcement of operational level maintenance activities (Note 24). | GOV1, VULN, MOS, GOV2, PAT | |
| M5-1 | Enforcement of ordinances and contractsa | Procedures (and adequate resources) for enforcing ordinances (e.g., tree preservation ordinances) and contracts with private companies for tree care (e.g., ensuring quality tree planting occurs and evaluating tree survival and pursuing any warranty guarantees per tree condition). | NBS | |
| M5-2 through M5-X | Collective-choice level: Boundary rules, Position rules, Choice rules, Information rules, Aggregation rules, Payoff rules, Scope rulesa | Seven kinds of rules that help specify the kinds of institutions relevant to operational-level tree maintenance decisions; see Figure 3 in Mincey et al. (2013) for a fully specified example with all rule types; some of these kinds of rules may be inside M3. Proactive management activities (Note 25). | INST | |
| M5-Y | Other collective-choice level institutionsa | Additional kinds of rules, norms, strategies about the operational-level management decisions | ||
| M6 | Constitutional-choice level institutions | Rules and strategies about who makes collective-choice level rules (e.g., the ordinance, case-law, policy, informal tradition, or other decision-making enabling authority that specifies who and how operational level maintenance decisions are made)(Note 24). | GOV1, MOS, GOV2, PAT | |
| M6-1 through M6-X | Constitutional-choice level: Boundary rules, Position rules, Choice rules, Information rules, Aggregation rules, Payoff rules, Scope rulesa | Seven kinds of rules that help specify the kinds of institutions relevant to collective-choice level decision-making; see Figure 4 in Mincey et al. (2013) for a fully specified example with all rule types (Note 25). | INST | |
| M6-Y | Other constitutional-choice level institutionsa | Additional kinds of rules, norms, strategies about the collective-choice level institutions (e.g., who can make the collective-choice level rules, norms, strategies) | ||
| M7 | Meta-constitutional level institutions | Rules and strategies about the manner in which constitutional-choice level decisions are made (e.g., the enabling authority); kind/style of government (e.g., mayor-council at municipal level; “right to work” state; constitutional democracy at national level)(Note 24). | GOV1, GOV2, PAT | |
| M8 | Property rights regimes, Land ownership, access rights, use rightsb | Ownership of and/or legal responsibility for tree and/or tree-planting space (Note 26). | GOV1, GOV2, PAT | |
| M9/MX | Legal institutions | Ordinances, laws, regulations, and judicial precedents/case law regarding the planting, preservation, care, removal, and liability issues related to trees (including procedures for sanctioning violators); might be specified inside M5 and M6 for those legal institutions which specify collective-choice or constitutional-level institutions (Note 27). | GOV1, GOV2 | |
| M10/HX | Norms/behaviors | Individual and/or shared view/values on trees/yards/lawns and their benefits, costs, risks, level of tree care, invasive species management, aesthetic preferences, etc.; “civic ecology” behaviors on private yards such as lawncare activities, leaf management, vegetable, perennial, or native gardening, etc. (Note 28). | SUS, GOV1, MOS, MORT | |