Urban residents have strong connections with the trees that provide beauty, character, structure, familiarity, and myriad ecosystem services to their landscapes. When tree canopy declines, the associated benefits and landscape impacts decline as well. In the context of gradual tree canopy decline, this reduction in tree-related benefits and the changes to residents’ experiences of their landscapes may not be immediately noticeable. However, dramatic and instantaneous canopy loss as a result of severe weather events is significantly more noticeable, even for residents who may not normally pay close attention to trees. This research investigates resident experiences of an EF-3 (Enhanced Fujita scale) tornado in Springfield, Massachusetts to understand their feelings about canopy change from pre-disaster through three stages of disaster aftermath. We employed semi-structured interviews to learn: how tree loss associated with the tornado altered residents’ feelings about/relationship with their urban forest; how they felt about and interacted differently with their treeless landscape; how they made decisions about and experienced the tree replanting process in the mid-term aftermath, and with tree stewardship in the long-term aftermath; and how they felt about their landscape after more than a decade of canopy regrowth. We found that residents: had strong emotional responses to tree loss; missed the benefits that the trees provided (even if they did not enjoy the specific trees that were around their home prior to the tornado); felt disoriented in the treeless landscape; and were pleased with their decision to replant, despite minor frustrations with their new trees.
Powning et al. (Sun,) studied this question.