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Research Focus

Urban Environmental Stewardship

Ordinary people take a variety of actions to try to help nature survive and thrive, especially in built-up areas – for example, planting trees, pulling weeds, and hanging bird houses.  But environmental stewardship takes many forms and may also include things like planting community gardens, teaching kids about nature, and organizing park clean-up events.

We study urban natural resource stewardship in order to understand the efforts people are making to help their local environments and why.

Selected Research

• Models for Ecological Restoration in Urban Areas: Lessons from the US and Germany
• Restorative Commons: Creating Health and Well-Being through Urban Landscapes
• Living Memorials that Commemorate the 9/11 Attacks
• NYC STEW-MAP: The Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project