Attitudes of residents of a medium sized town in South West Scotland to street trees

Abstract

This paper considers the attitudes of residents, living in currently treeless streets in a Scottish town, to street trees. Tour streets were selected for the study to provide a gradation from underprivileged to affluent. Most respondents did not see trees as important in improving the quality of their street. Trees were seen as most important in the two affluent streets, and least important in a low income street with a preponderance of elderly residents. Male respondents were significantly more likely to favour street tree planting than females. Other factors investigated, such as respondent age, and the degree of maintenance care and structural complexity demonstrated by respondents’ front gardens, did not show statistically significant associations with the expressed preference for street trees.