Digging Together: Why people volunteer to help plant one million trees in New York City

This is the second paper in a series that focuses on the social and organizational dynamics of urban environmental stewardship. This paper presents results from research on volunteer stewards at MillionTreesNYC tree planting events in spring and fall 2010, which were sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the New York Restoration Project, a non-profit organization focused on enhancing underused green spaces throughout NYC. Although recent academic and policy studies have focused on the increasingly wide range of organizations working as stewards to conserve, manage, monitor, advocate for, or educate the public about the local environment, it remains unclear how individual citizens get involved in local stewardship initiatives. Such knowledge is needed by professionals working to manage environmental stewardship programs and by anyone seeking to understand better how the human infrastructure of environmental stewardship is established, maintained, and improved.