Vegetation management for urban park visitors: a mixed methods approach in Portland, Oregon

Urban park managers are tasked with maintaining ecological function and quality of parks while also meeting visitor preferences. The purpose of this study was to better understand how managers currently manage vegetation in parks of Portland, Oregon. Twenty-one urban park manager interviews were completed regarding 15 parks, which included natural-passive use, recreational-active use, and multi-use park types. Responses were coded for themes and patterns of meaning. Mixed methods were used to evaluate the urban park manager interview data in the context of visitor interview and plant community composition data collected at the same parks. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordinations were used to identify urban park manager and visitor perspectives correlated with different park types and their vegetation. Across park types, managers discussed maintenance as a favorite aspect of plant management, while ecosystem management was often described by managers of natural-passive use parks. Some managers indicated that they would make no changes to plant management, but the majority provided detailed recommendations such as enhancing maintenance, increasing staffing, adding plants, updating infrastructure, and improving plant species selection. There are opportunities to better meet the preferences of both managers and visitors by continuing to maintain large trees and trail/path vegetation for accessibility, removing invasive/harmful plants, and improving plant selection to include those that are heartier, more colorful, produce flowers, and are disease resistant, climate adapted, and provide habitat for a variety of species. While urban park managers discussed how they incorporated visitor preferences and accessibility in plant management, they also described limitations such as funding, staff resources, and undesirable visitor behaviors. Increased communication and collaboration among governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and community members, as well as continued investment in park management and interdisciplinary mixed methods research have the potential to enhance the many ecological and social benefits of urban parks.