Fruit-Loving Planters and Risk-Sensitive Removers Shape the Private Urban Forest in a Small Canadian City

Background Trees on private property are a substantial and essential component of urban forests. Residents’ motivations to plant and remove trees are diverse and context dependent. Understanding these motivations can inform strategies that encourage planting, mitigate removal, and help managers promote urban forest resilience. Methods We surveyed residents of a small city in Alberta, Canada, collecting open-ended responses on tree planting and removal motivations, demographic and property characteristics, environmental attitudes, and tree planting behaviors. Motivations were binary coded and analyzed using hierarchical clustering; cluster membership was tested for associations with other study variables. Results Residents were primarily motivated to plant trees for fruit, aesthetics, and privacy and were motivated to remove trees because of poor tree health, risk to property or people, or too much maintenance. Distinct clusters were based on planting motivations such as “fruit lovers”, “landscape planters”, “tree replacers”, and “tree lovers”. Tree lovers lived in their current home longer than fruit lovers. Based on removal motivations, respondents were clustered as “risk-sensitive removers” and “tree health removers.” Low-income residents were more likely to be risk-sensitive removers than high-income residents. Risk-sensitive removers had older homes, removed more trees, and had fewer trees on their property. Conclusions This research highlights how city residents prioritize provisioning and social ecosystem services when planting trees on private property. This study suggests that resident engagement should incorporate a wider range of ecosystem services and that nonmunicipal organizations can target engagement based on district motivations to improve environmental outcomes and contribute to their own goals.