Geography

Place as human-environment network: Tree planting and place-making in Massachusetts, USA

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

Considering place as more-than-local, this chapter takes a relational approach to understanding place production. It does so by exploring notions of place, and by investigating environmental policies as integral to urban place-making. Using as a case study the ‘Greening the Gateway Cities’ program, a formal governance program to plant trees in a number of cities in Massachusetts, USA, the chapter considers a number of human and non-human actors that can shape a place through tree planting. A state government agency, and its forester-actors, enact a policy to plant trees and foster tree stewardship on primarily private property. Community non-profit partners help to promote the program, and individual residents and property owners steward the newly planted trees. In this energy and climate-adaptation formal governance policy, multi-scalar actors are brought together around caring for trees. The resulting relationships and landscape demonstrates the ongoing, emerging and multi-actor making of places as human environments.

Publication Title

The Routledge Handbook of Place

Publication Date

2020

First Page

109

Last Page

117

ISBN

9780429842191

DOI

10.4324/9780429453267-9

Share

COinS