Loading...
Measuring Ecological Grief to Guide Inclusive Urban Forest Management
Eyster, Harold N Gould, Rachelle K.
Eyster, Harold N
Gould, Rachelle K.
Citations
Altmetric:
License
License
DOI
10.1139/cjfr-2025-0092
Abstract
Aligning city planning decisions with inclusive and current preferences requires (re)examining urbanites' relationships with their greenery. For example, Vancouver, Canada cultivates broadleaf street trees (reflecting visions of British colonizers), but does this choice reflect current residents? Ecological grief is an increasingly widely used concept that may help indicate today’s human--forest relationships. We surveyed residents of Metro Vancouver (n= 600) and assessed how biophysical, geographical, social identity, and structural factors shape ecological grief. We used two Bayesian models and found that broadleaf and conifer declines evoke similar feelings of grief across all racial groups. We also found that birdwatching, running/walking on sidewalks, income, age, gender, and urbanness captured variations in grief. These results suggest that planting a greater variety of trees and enabling inclusive and meaningful interactions with urban forests may better serve today’s residents. Our study exemplifies how ecological grief can indicate relationships with nature and guide management.
Description
Date
2025-09-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Collections
Files
Loading...
Eyster2024CJFR.pdf
Adobe PDF, 555.11 KB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Eyster, H. N., & Gould, R. K. (2025). Measuring ecological grief to guide inclusive urban forest management. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 55, 1–8. doi: 10.1139/cjfr-2025-0092