European Conference of Arboriculture - May26th/28th 2014 - Torino, ItalyTrees and citizens:why don't people trust tree risk assessment?Claudia Alzetta1, Michele Fede2, Giovanni Poletti31Municipality, Park and Green Space Mgmt Dpt. Via Zamboni 1 - I-35100 Padova; email: alzettac@comune.padova.it,2Professional Arborist, Agridea-Via Antonio di Vincenzo 60 - I-40129 Bologna; email: michelefede@libero.it,3Professional Arborist, Doc Green-Via Piangipane 69 - I-44121 Ferrara; email: docpoletti@docgreen.it

Via D'Annunzio: a tree war story Claudia AlzettaPadova, May 2013: the Green Department arborists examine ten old black locust trees rooted along acentral town. They detect a number of tree defects, and decide to have the trees tested with a resistancemicrodrill. A specialised arborist performs the test which confirms that internal defects are present: publicsafety must be guaranteed by promptly removing the trees.June 2013: citizens are informed about the forthcoming removal by means of leaflets affixed in the streetand detailed information publicised on the Web, explaining the reasons for the felling and describingthe future new plantations.June 10th, 8.30 am: unexpectedly, citizens block the trees removal by entering the delimited workingarea, arguing the response is bigger than the threat. Reckless parents send a young boy with a teddy-bearto hug one of the unstable trees. The arborists try uselessly to give reasons, and eventually the tree fellingis postponed.June 11th: as it often happens local newspapers, far from being interested in supplying citizens withuseful explanations, put up a fight between local government and citizens. They intentionally describethe situation using words suitable in a battlefield.During the next weeks meetings between technicians and committees are hold, tree risk assessment formsare shown and explained.Citizens don’t trust the technical inspection and arborists make great efforts to convince them about theefficiency of the municipality tree program.July 4th: the ten old trees are finally removed. A month has passed by since the trees have been identifiedas hazardous. What if a tree collapsed in the meanwhile? Would people recognise that the sit in held inJune has been a foolish act?

Claudia Alzetta et al., European Conference of Arboriculture - May 26th/28th 2014 - Torino, Italy 2

Via Palermo: a never ending story Giovanni PolettiVia Palermo, a residential area in Padova. A tree-lined stretch of about 500 meters with 107 mature treeson both sides which helps to make it a significant green way.The street is periodically subjected to tree failure risk assessment, to identify and eliminate hazardoustrees. In 2013, the analysis carried out on 9 trees detected four D-class trees and one C/D-class tree.The immediate establishment of a no-tree-removal citizen committee led by emotional justificationsrather then technical motivations prevented the trees removal, contesting the trees inspections as com-pletely false or unreliable.Request of documentary materials, door-to-door activities, sit-ins, Facebook group, local media involve-ment, access to documents, public meetings: the strong emotional attachment to the imaginary tree, re-gardless its health status, was strengthened by feelings of suspicion including the exchange of politicalfavours to the detriment of citizens.Although citizens had very ambiguous and lacking knowledge about trees (as far as pruning, maintenanceor tree assessment are concerned) they rejected technical explanation given by arborists making thedebate almost impossible.

Looking forwardThe management of the city trees will be most effective when both groups, citizens committees and localgovernment, work together.Forming a task force is an excellent way of ensuring cooperation between groups with diverse interests.It is necessary to find out ways to foster community support for the urban management program.Our proposals:● develop a comprehensive management plan ● widely popularize the municipality tree program● recognise the authority of the staff (arborists or foresters) committed in tree management: its au-

thority must be strongly uphold by political groups● involvement of professional associations provided by law in order to grant the respect of the ar-

borists competence according to professional ethics● educational and incentive programs are positive ways to encourage good tree care within the

community. If citizens will learn how to properly manage their own trees, they will understand thatlocal government is doing the same with the community trees, and they will finally appreciate theremoval of dangerous trees

● an effort should be done by local media to quit yellow journalism and to become a useful sourceof communication for citizens

do you have any hints?