Agreement Among Arborists, Gardeners, and Landscape Architects in Rating Street Trees

Abstract

Professional judgment plays a major role in selecting street trees, most often in the compila- tion of regional lists. Little information is available as to the degree of agreement among members of different professions involved with street tree se- lection. Based on their training, it is possible that landscape architects are most sensitive to visual aesthetics in choosing trees, city arborists will be most concerned with cost, growth, and liability issues, while professional gardeners would be concerned primarily with tree maintenance. If professions differ markedly from one another in suitability ratings, it will be necessary to secure representation from the other professions in order to ensure attention to all relevant factors in tree selection. The present study examines the degree of agreement among arborists, professional gar- deners, and landscape architects regarding the suitability of eight species of street trees currently planted intheir area. A subsidiary question involves the value of mail surveys as a tool for assessing practitioner opinions of tree species planted locally. The questionnaire is an extraordinarily efficient tool for collecting evaluations from a large number of practitioners, and if this approach can be used successfully in collecting street tree evaluations, this may have important ramifications for compil- ing regional and statewide lists using a broad pool of qualified individuals representing different professions.