Community groups and urban forestry activity: Drivers of uneven canopy cover?

Abstract

Urban forests provide a range of environmental, social, economic and health benefits, but because the distribution of canopy cover is uneven across many metropolitan areas, there is unequal access to the benefits. While recent work has documented the socioeconomic factors correlated with uneven distributions – including neighborhood wealth, presence of renters, and different ethnocultural groups – less attention has been paid to the ways local actors foster such inequalities. This paper explores the urban forestry activities of two types of community groups (business improvement areas and resident associations) in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, Canada), to begin to fill the gap in our understanding of the influence local actors have on urban forest patterns. Specifically, we explored (1) the types of urban forestry-related activities these groups conduct and (2) the relationship between a group's level of involvement in urban forestry and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, basic group characteristics, and its municipality's urban forestry program. The results indicate business improvement areas’ activity levels are primarily related to the municipal setting. On the other hand, the extent of resident associations’ activities are correlated with median household income, percent of owner-occupied dwellings and type of housing, suggesting that resident associations may be supporting the uneven distribution of the urban forest. The paper ends with a discussion of the motivators and limiters associated with the community groups’ urban forestry activities.