Different Oaks for Different Folks: The role of street tree planting and resident preferences in ecosystem services provision

In order to inform strategies for outreach and equity in tree planting, this paper investigates patterns in street tree requests and preferences to determine whether requesters’ opinions reflect the ecosystem services (ES) valued in the i-Tree Eco model. Using tree request data from Urban Resources Initiative and ES estimates from the i-Tree Eco model, I estimated ES totals using request preferences for neighborhoods and census block groups in New Haven. I found that the most common request was for flowering trees, followed by shade trees. I also identified relationships between the number of tree requests and non-Hispanic white population or homeownership rate. Shade tree requests were strongly associated with non-Hispanic white population and the number of existing shade trees. Interestingly, flowering tree requests were not associated with any predictors. Though there was no relationship between estimated ES and popularity by tree genus, shade tree requests were positively associated with estimated ES per request. These results indicate that there remain barriers to tree requesting for some communities in New Haven; requester preferences are generally aesthetic-based across demographic categories, despite significant variation across New Haven; and the i-Tree model does not fully capture aesthetic values.