ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relevant scholarship on civic participation broadly and urban stewardship in particular. It explores what drives urban voluntarism in this shifting social and political context, with a specific focus on environmental stewardship within one locality. The chapter lays the foundation for authors broad exploration of how stewardship relates to democratic citizenship. It also explains how urban environmental stewardship relates to civic engagement among volunteer stewards involved with the MillionTreesNYC initiative in New York City. The MillionTreesNYC initiative seeks to capitalize on civic engagement in New York City by leveraging volunteers to help plant trees. The chapter reports on data from volunteer stewards involved with the MillionTreesNYC initiative. It explores the civic and political engagement of volunteer stewards in the sample research. Finally, the chapter discusses how these findings relate to one another in an effort to define further the nature of contemporary urban environmental stewardship.
