What are the roles of the Urban Forest and Urban Citizen Foresters in the recovery of communities following disasters in cities?

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Trees and Rebirth Urban Community Forestry in
Post-Katrina Resilience

• What are the roles of the Urban Forest and Urban
  Citizen Foresters in the recovery of communities
  following disasters in cities? 

Jean Fahr, Parkway Partners, NOLA Keith G.
Tidball, Cornell University
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Community Partner-Parkway Partners

• NUCFAC Video
• Organizational background- Jeans story
• Description of the tree people, the tree scene
  and players (community of practice)
• What has been the communitys experience in
  working with the research fellow? What have been
  the benefits, challenges, problems and/or
  opportunities of having a fellow in your
  community

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Research Question

• How do trees shape resilience before and
  following disaster in cities?
• In what ways does active engagement of people
  with trees through involvement in an Urban
  Forestry Community of Practice contribute to
  social-ecological system resilience to disasters
  in cities?

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Site
What defines the community for my study is not a
particular neighborhood or political boundary
such as the 9th Ward, but rather a
practice---i.e., the planting of and caring for
trees. This practice has emerged through the
work of my community partner organizations and of
a diverse group of volunteers who have taken the
initiative to go into City Park, their own
neighborhoods, and other sites throughout the
city to prune damaged trees, plant street trees,
document losses of important symbolic trees and
forests, and provide trees and information for
residents, all to actively participate in the
rebirth of themselves, their neighborhoods, and
their city after Katrina.

• Parkway Partners, Hike for KaTREEna and Replant
  New Orleans discovered during pre-dis work.
• Volunteer replanting and tree care efforts
  occurring in neighborhoods city-wide.
• Volunteers not defined by a particular race,
  class, neighborhood, or other traditional
  category.
• Volunteer community foresters in NOLA are
  dispersed geographically and are diverse in terms
  of ethnicity and other factors

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Participatory Research-Of New Orleans, for New
Orleans

• Project emerges from within this community of
  practice.
•  Establishing and maintaining relationships of
  trust and reciprocity, and meaningful
  participation of community members crucial to
  success in post-Katrina environment
• Flexibility to be in maximum participatory
  research mode when the community of practice is
  assembled, which is seasonal and determined by
  availability of trees and other resources.

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Participatory Methods

• Community of practice helping to identify study
  questions, carrying out surveys and interpreting
  the results of these efforts
• Qualitative participatory research methods inform
  the sample population, survey implementation, and
  development of measures for quantitative surveys.
  
• Elaborate, enhance, illustrate, and clarify the
  results from the quantitative aspects of the
  study.

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Thank you

• Parkway Partners/NOLA Tree Troopers
• Hike for KaTREEna
• Replant New Orleans
• Community Forestry Research Fellows Program
• Cornell New Orleans Planning Initiative
• Dr. Marianne Krasny

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Communities of Practice
A community of practice defines itself along
three dimensions (Wenger 1998) What it is about
its joint enterprise as understood and
continually renegotiated by its members. How it
functions - mutual engagement that bind members
together into a social entity. What capability it
has produced the shared repertoire of communal
resources that members have developed over time.
(see, also Wenger 1999 73-84)  
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COP Characteristics

• (1) The domain A community of practice is not
  merely a club of friends or a network of
  connections between people. It has an identity
  defined by a shared domain of interest, in my
  case urban community forestry to recover from
  Hurricane Katrina. Membership therefore implies a
  commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared
  competence that distinguishes members from other
  people.
• (2) The community In pursuing their interest in
  their domain, members engage in joint activities
  and discussions, help each other, and share
  information. They build relationships that enable
  them to learn from each other. Members of a
  community of practice do not necessarily work or
  live together on a daily basis. The
  Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in
  cafes and studios to discuss the style of
  painting they were inventing together. These
  interactions were essential to making them a
  community of practice even though they often
  painted alone. In my case, the community
  foresters in Post-Katrina New Orleans as a
  community of practice are/is distributed
  throughout New Orleans, therefore my site is as
  well.
• (3) The practice A community of practice is not
  merely a community of interest--people who like
  certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of
  a community of practice are practitioners. They
  develop a shared repertoire of resources
  experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing
  recurring problemsin short a shared practice.
  This takes time and sustained interaction.

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RQ1 Institutional analysis focusing on innovations (organizations) RQ2 Residents, trees recovery (general public) RQ3 Urban forestry community of practice and recovery (forestry volunteers)  
Phase 1 Tasks 1-Interviews of org staffs 2- Collect organizational documents 3- Strategize and plan with partners re interview groups and locations Tasks 1- Conduct 30 short (5-10 min), exploratory interviews 2- Transcribe code data 3- Analyze generate themes Tasks 1- Conduct 30 short (5-10 min) exploratory interviews 2- Transcribe code data 3- Analyze generate themes  
Timing Fall 2008 Timing Winter 2008-09 Timing Winter 2009-09  
Phase 2 Tasks GIS Mapping- 1- Collect and assemble maps, other data 2- Assemble data and produce maps Tasks 1- Conduct 5 in-depth interviews 2- Facilitate photo elicitation 3- Transcribe code interviews Tasks 1- Conduct 5 in-depth interviews 2- Facilitate photo elicitation 3- Conduct applied ethnographic research rapid assessment 4- Transcribe code interviews  
Phase 2 Timing Spring 2009 Timing Winter 2008-09 Timing Winter 2008-09  
Phase 3 N/A Tasks 1- Develop survey from Phases 12 2- Conduct surveys, 200 residents 3-Tabulate and analyze data Tasks 1- Develop survey from Phases 12 2- Conduct surveys, 20 volunteer foresters 3-Tabulate and analyze data  
Phase 3 N/A Timing Summer 2009 Timing Summer 2009  
Phase 4 N/A N/A Tasks Focus group 1- Recruit assemble focus group members 2- Conduct focus group 3- Interpret results of focus group REVISIT ANY PHASE RESOLVE DATA ISSUES
Phase 4 N/A N/A Timing Fall 2009 Timing Fall 2009
Phase 5 N/A N/A Tasks 1- Develop quantitative survey from phases 1-4 2- Conduct surveys, 200 volunteer foresters 3- Tabulate and analyze data  
Phase 5 N/A N/A Timing Winter 2009-2010  
Phase 6 Interpret and write-up 2010 Interpret and write-up 2010 Interpret write-up 2010