The best laid plans: How do adopted city sustainability goals influence site-level action in urban forestry?

Abstract

Cities increasingly hope to mobilize nature-based solutions in urban sustainability planning because of their wide-ranging ecosystem services. In this critical moment, where failure due to poor implementation could lead policymakers to turn away from nature-based solutions, we investigate the case of urban forestry and ask: how do strategic-level sustainability goals influences site-level decision-making? We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 urban foresters leading advanced programs at municipalities with adopted sustainability goals, framed as ecosystem services, across the US and Canada. Day-to-day, site-level decision-making focused on advancing a “more, bigger trees” paradigm with the justification that this would deliver increased ecosystem services in a general sense and thus contribute to city goals. Our analysis and results suggest that urban foresters are more guided by a shared sense of the greater purpose of their work to serve urban communities than city plans, which yields actions usually aligning but sometimes conflicting with specific strategic-level goals.

Citation

Bassett, Corinne G.; Day, Susan D.; Konijnendijk, Cecil C.; Roman, Lara A.; Yee, Chanel K.; Chan, Kai M. A. 2025. The best laid plans: How do adopted city sustainability goals influence site-level action in urban forestry? Ambio. 55(3): 591-607. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02247-0.