This media project would raise awareness of the critical role of trees for humans and the biosphere. Trees are essential for life on earth and are currently threatened by changing climate patterns. Trees offer an accessible path to learning about the science of climate change. The project will test a new model for integrating direct citizen participation into a nationally distributed film project. The project is projected to reach at least 15 million Americans during the grant period and many more during the 10-year project lifespan of the films. Principal public audiences include PBS viewers and citizen foresters. The professional audience is broadcast meteorologists. Partners include U.S. Forest Service, National Environmental Education Foundation, and Alliance for Community Trees.
Project deliverables include a 3 part PBS documentary series, a multimedia story project that develops capacity of volunteers in forestry organizations (citizen foresters) to craft evidence-based stories about forest and trees; website, social networks, a mobile app; and capacity building of broadcast meteorologists to report on tree science in the context of current weather/changing climate.
Innovative strategies of the project include working with Community Partners to build the capacity of local citizen foresters to create evidence-based digital media stories about forests and trees. Citizen Foresters is a term to describe large and diverse groups (paid staff or volunteers) who are motivated by a desire to help the environment and a desire to learn. The project has identified 7 cities where they will conduct digital media workshops providing coaching and support to local Citizen Foresters who will then craft digital stories about trees. These stories will be shared nationally through an interactive, geo-coded website and some segments will be used in the national television programs. Social media apps such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram will be used to facilitate sharing and engagement. This is a new model of local/national collaborative storytelling and community engagement designed to increase knowledge, awareness and interest in the ecology of forests.
The formative evaluation of the project will include a series of studies to test different elements of the multi-platform system during development, including the films, multimedia story project, website, social media, mobile app and the trees information service for broadcast meteorologists. The summative evaluation will assess impact of the project on two audiences: PBS viewers and citizen foresters. A quasi-experimental design test will be used to more deeply understand contextual factors related to audience impact.
