Stewardship Science Resources
Systems of Care
Systems of Care is an activity that uses drawing and storytelling to reveal who takes care of a community and place. It is a versatile activity adaptable to different scales and places: from the individual, family, neighborhood, school, city, forest, or watershed-level scale.
There are 3 main steps to the activity:
- Choose the starting point and object of care,
- Draw and tell the narrative, and
- Reflect on the narrative and drawing to understand which relationships are involved in taking care of surroundings.
Interested in trying this out? For more information see these resources:
Stewardship Salons
Stewardship Salons are collaborative learning spaces that foster a community of voices in the care and stewardship of our environments and communities. Salons provide a space for individuals to share their professional and life experience as well as learn from other ways of knowing, fostering a greater sense of belonging in the environmental field.
These convenings invite scientists, natural resource practitioners, artists, and neighborhood stewards to be in conversation with students with topics ranging from land and water management to site histories and culturally-rooted ways of knowing.
Interested in hosting your own Stewardship Salon? Check out our guide!
Also take a look at:
Social Assessment
How do people use and value public green spaces and natural areas? What meanings do they attach to these spaces? How can social science methodologies be used as training tools that help land managers “read the landscape” for social use, value, and meaning?
In 2013, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and natural resource managers at the New York City Urban Field Station embarked on a study to investigate the social dimensions and value of public green space in New York City. This study, a Citywide Social Assessment of New York City Parks and Natural Areas, explores approximately 9,000 acres of New York City parks in an effort to better understand the social meaning of these green spaces. Now known as the Social Assessment, it has been applied to other areas (ex. Catskill Park, NYS) as a method to understand how people use and value a space. Better understanding how spaces are used and valued can provide insight into how all can best serve visitors in a rapidly changing environment.
The method includes a survey aspect where investigators ask who comes to the space, why they come to the space, and how often and questions are adaptable to the location. Investigators also read the landscape by looking for “signs of human use” (ex. an unofficial footpath, graffiti, trash, etc.).
The Social Assessment can be applied to a specific location within the school, a neighborhood green-space or park!
Want to learn more? Check out these resources:
Recorded Presentation (Beyond Trees Network)
Report and methods overview (Auyeung et al. 2016)
