Volunteer engagement in Canadian urban forestry – A neoliberal fix or a complement to urban forestry staff?

Source abstract

Volunteers are a core component of municipal urban forestry, and most research in this area has focused on volunteer demographics, benefits, motivations, and barriers. Less is known about how municipalities themselves engage volunteers, or whether volunteerism functions as a substitute for municipal capacity. In this Short Communication, we analyze volunteer-related questions from a national survey of Canadian municipal urban forestry programs to estimate the scale of volunteer participation and examine how population, climate, canopy cover, and urban forestry budget and staffing are associated with volunteer engagement and activities. Specifically, we examine whether volunteers are a replacement for adequate municipal staff and budgets or primarily reflect community engagement efforts. We found that 52.9% of municipalities engaged volunteers in urban forestry activities. Volunteers participated either individually or through organizations, most commonly local environmental groups, school and youth groups, non-profit organizations, and private corporations. Volunteer efforts were concentrated in naturalization and park tree planting, aligning with the training municipalities most often provided. Volunteer engagement was more common in municipalities with larger populations, greater staffing capacity, and larger urban forestry budgets. Municipalities with greater staff and financial resources also engaged more volunteers overall, supported a broader range of volunteer activities and training opportunities, and partnered with a more diverse set of organizations, while urban forest budget inadequacy had no effect. These findings suggest that volunteer engagement in Canadian urban forestry functions primarily as a complement to municipal capacity and community engagement, rather than as a neoliberal substitute for professional staff or adequate public funding.