While residents of Bowie appreciate the beauty, privacy and shade provided by trees, the City’s tree rebate program yielded only 50 trees planted during the inaugural year (FY14). That number dropped to 27 in FY15 and just 9 in FY16. Similarly, after a 2010 tree pruning and clearing project by the local utility, replacement tree vouchers provided by the company were redeemed for only 20% of the approximately 3,000 eligible trees (greater than 8” dbh).
We conducted a barriers and benefits analysis (Phase I), and took that information to create outreach materials aimed at increasing the number of tree rebates redeemed. Our Positioning Statement was: We want Bowie homeowners in areas of low-to-medium UTC to see planting trees on their property as an easy, low-time commitment, valuable action they can take for themselves and for their community, and be moticated to and take the action of planting trees on their property.