How can the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department increase uptake of its EquiTree Program?

To improve San Antonio’s tree canopy and to help address inequities of tree coverage in lower-income, high-need sections of the city, the Parks and Recreation Department offers residents in these neighborhoods free 30-gallon trees through its EquiTree Program. Tree planting is executed in collaboration with external vendor(s).

Residents are informed of this opportunity via a bilingual (English/Spanish) door hanger with a detachable postcard that allows them to express interest in obtaining a free tree. After the Parks and Recreation Department receives the postcard, the resident’s information is recorded and sent to a vendor, who then contacts the resident with details about next steps, typically via a phone call.

The Parks and Recreation Department is invested in increasing uptake of its equity tree program, which currently sees an average response rate of 10% to the door hangers, and a conversion rate of approximately 75% at the second point of contact (i.e. from expression of interest via postcard to obtaining a tree).

The goal of this project is therefore two-fold:

1. to understand what reservations residents may have about obtaining a free tree, uncover any process barriers that may exist, and determine how program communications and/or processes might be improved to increase free tree planting initial uptake.
2. to determine the root causes of response drop off after residents express interest, as well as to identify and test ways of increasing the conversion rate via process improvements or other suggested methods.