People’s perceptions of urban trees are more negative after COVID-19 lockdowns

Abstract The ways people think about urban nature affect how people engage with and support nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation in cities. While geographical and socio-demographic characteristics are known to influence people’s thoughts about urban nature, there is little knowledge on how these perceptions can shift over time, especially in response to major events that disrupt the human-nature relationship (such as hurricanes, wildfires, and pandemics). Considering urban trees are a key nature-based solution in cities, this study explores the shift in people’s perceptions about urban trees before and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. We also assessed how urban context and socio-demographics influenced this shift. Using Melbourne, Australia, as a case study, we delivered an online panel survey based on validated psychometrics about urban trees in summer 2020 (pre-COVID-19 lockdowns) and again in summer 2023 (post-COVID-19 lockdowns). The survey helped us explore temporal changes related to values and beliefs associated with urban forests and trees. Our results showed a change in two perceptions, with a 2% decrease in the importance of urban trees for nature ( p = 0.02, r = 0.04) and a 4.3% increase in negative beliefs about trees ( p < 0.01, r = 0.08) in 2023, compared to 2020. These shifts were greatest in outer urban areas. Furthermore, we observed that most socio-demographic groups rated the importance of the natural values lower and rated negative beliefs about urban trees higher in 2023, compared to 2020. While previous studies have found people had a more positive connection to urban nature during COVID-19 lockdowns, our study highlights that perceptions of urban trees may shift over time, which can lead to future changes in community support and engagement with urban forest management.