Local Outcomes of Federal and State Urban & Community Forestry Programs

Abstract

Increasing local urban and community forestry (U&CF) programs and activities in the United States is a goal of state and federal U&CF programs. This study found local U&CF programs within the 50 United States increased in activity between 1997 and 2002 at a 2.1% annual rate of increase. Several attributes of state U&CF forestry programs from a multiple regression model and correla-tion analysis partially explain the increase in local U&CF program activity. The number of technical assists in a state were a strong pre-dictor for increased local activity. Less certainty was found with state money used to fund the state U&CF program or the use of cost-share assistance (Federal Cooperative Forestry Assistance Challenge Cost-share Grants) and this increase. Study findings provide evidence that state and federal U&CF programs within the United States are furthering the building of capacity and development of local U&CF programs.