Enjoying green cities: Assessing visitors’ attitude and preferences of urban forests in Washington, D.C.

Visitors to Washington, D.C. were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the city’s urban forest. In the first section, respondents were asked to rate their agreement with 23 statements, e.g., whether parks/gardens/urban forest make the city more restful or interesting, whether the urban forests were among the main attributes attracting them to the city, whether street trees hinder mobility, and whether trees attract birds that are a nuisance. In the second section respondents were asked to rank ten possible urban forest compositions, e.g., “composed of trees, shrubs and grass; scattered throughout the city; mainly green with many other colors and trimmed.” The study had very positive results with two-thirds strongly agreeing that urban forests make the city more interesting and relaxing. There were no strong preferences for a particular plant variety, planting pattern, color variety, or growth form.