ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a two-year study of the MillionTreesNYC initiative, which has planted over 900,000 trees around the city of New York since 2007. The research focused specifically on how individual citizens got involved in the effort, what motivated them to get involved, and what they did after planting trees in natural areas around New York City. It was found that minorities volunteer as urban environmental stewards at a higher rate than the demographics of New York City might lead to expect. The chapter provides a better understanding in connection between stewardship and civic engagement. In addition to changing landscapes and governmental arrangements, these initiatives are changing the way people think about environmental activism and environmental movements. As the MillionTreesNYC initiative gets close to achieving its goal, it is worth thinking about the future of environmental stewardship in the context of the broader urban sustainability movement. Volunteers have worked to establish models for hybrid governance.
