Our second reflection is that we can learn from a com-
munity organizing approach to build a bigger tent
for stewardship. We can find points of intersection
and synergy with other fields, including allies in arts/
culture, transportation, labor, food, health, and housing
who all have a shared commitment to improving com-
munity quality of life, sustainability, and resilience.
Seek out partners in unexpected places so that you
can learn from their experience, share your own, and
explore new questions that you wouldn't have other-
wise asked. In doing this work, we can find areas of
common interest, where the urban forest is a means
to achieving broad community goals, rather than an
end in itself. Building relationships of trust with part-
ners in these sectors is a long-term investment in your
program, rooted in shared values and priorities.
Thirdly, we can create "brave spaces" for dialogue,
discussion, and learning across social and cultural dif-
ferences. There are many different approaches to
cultivating brave spaces or safe spaces; see Arao and
Clemens 2013, for example. You can set up informal
learning circles and other types of spaces as long as
you have a consistent set of ground rules and fair pro-
cedures that all participants agree with. Consider
creating non-hierarchical spaces that cross different
career stages, sectors, and sources of expertise.
These dialogues take time and space to organize.
Don't feel that you have to do this alone—seek pro-
fessional training, facilitation, and resources.
At the same time, don't see the lack of a master teacher
or paid expert facilitator as a reason not to start. If you
don't have a hired facilitator, consider rotating facilita-
tion of the learning circle so that leadership is shared
(see The Circle Way). In addition to learning from each
other, find ways to learn from place, recognizing nature
itself as a teacher. In so doing, spend time learning and
sharing names, place names, and plant names from your
place—including local, traditional, and Indigenous names.
Finally, recognize that engaging in cross-cultural dia-
logue and fostering biocultural stewardship is a lifelong
process that can inspire real change, innovation, and
equity considerations that transform our institutions.
Fundamentally, the approach involves shifting our lens
and power-sharing, giving ourselves space and time to
take chances and break down barriers. We have learned
through our research that this work can only proceed at
the speed of trust (see, e.g. Covey 2006, Brown 2019);
and as Uncle Keoki Apokolani Carter of the Hawaiʻi Forest
Institute expressed, we are working on "tree time."
26 CityTREES
