Scientists & Staff
Michelle Johnson
431 Walter Reed Road
Fort Totten Cluster #2, Box #12
Current Research
At the NYC Urban Field Station, I have become involved in many urban socio-ecological systems research projects.
Environmental Stewardship. Recent research is strengthening our understanding of the role civic ecologists play in stewarding urban natural resources. An on-going NYC Urban Field Station project, STEW-MAP surveys and maps activity areas, or turfs, of voluntary environmental stewardship organizations in the city. Now replicated in many U.S. cities (e.g., Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle), we are initiating comparative analyses across these cities, to examine relationships among cities' physical characteristics, governance structures, and stewardship organizations' networks and organizational structures.
Urban Parks. Understanding existing conditions is critical to natural resource management activities, yet city parks often lack baseline data on these conditions. Working with NYC Parks and the Natural Areas Conservancy, we are examining park users' activities and meaning in relation to ecological data collected within natural areas (e.g., forest, grassland, wetlands, and salt marshes) in NYC parks.
Urban Tree Health. I am working with Rich Hallett and Nancy Sonti in developing methods to quantify urban tree health, with the potential for examining how tree health varies not only by species but by locational factors. Starting with New York City trees, this work has the potential to expand to other cities and along the urban-rural gradient. Previous work by Rich Hallett and Jennifer Pontius has examined these metrics in rural forest contexts. Also, we are examining the collection of these metrics by people with varying skill levels (e.g., no experience, professional, scientist).
Landscapes of Resilience. The Northern Research Station is in the early stages of developing a Center for Resilient Landscapes in collaboration with Rutgers University. I plan to apply my land use modeling experiences to assist in developing socio-ecological models of disturbance and resilience, situated in the New Jersey landscape.
Community Gardens. In urban areas, community gardens provide access to nature to city residents. Gardens also can be a vehicle for change. Building on existing interviews and qualitative analysis examining the impact of community gardens, we are also examining the relationship between gardens and neighborhood change.
Research Interests
My research interests are broad, having begun my career as an avian ecologist and transitioned to conservation planning and now urban ecology. I am interested in many aspects of dynamic socio-ecological systems, particularly sustainability and resilience. I approach these interests with a diverse set of skills, including spatial analysis, quantitative social science, and systems thinking.
Past Research
My dissertation work focused on scenarios of land use change along an urban-rural gradient in southern and central Maine. For this work, I constructed a cellular-automata model of land use change to develop five distinct scenarios of future land use/land cover conditions at a watershed scale, making use of Bayesian network-derived land use suitability data created by participating stakeholders. One contribution this work made was in integrating coarser-scale land conservation and agriculture patterns with finer scale development patterns in a single framework. I also investigated the effects of reading scenario narratives in a survey format on the public's willingness to participate in land use planning activities. Reading scenarios increased both willingness to participate and self-efficacy (one's assessment of whether one can make an impact when engaging in a behavior). However, these results varied by which scenarios survey respondents viewed. Scenarios where local foods, forest management, and land conservation were emphasized increased willingness to participate in respondents, whereas scenarios of a more global markets emphasis did not. These results have implications for increasing representation in public participation efforts in planning. Additionally, my dissertation examined questions of presentation scale on the perceived personal relevance to scenarios and effects of scenarios on sense of community.
Why This Research is Important
We now live in the Anthropocene, which has fundamentally changed our concepts of human and environment. Understanding human-environmental interactions is more critical than ever. Given the ongoing trends of urbanization and coastal living, understanding the functioning of New York City as a socio-ecological system has implications for managing natural resources here and in other urbanized contexts.Education
- University of Maine, Ph.D. Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2014
- University of Vermont, M.S. Natural Resource Planning, 2004
- Eckerd College, B.S. Biology, 1997
Professional Organizations
- Scenarios, Service, and Society Research Coordination Network (2013 - Current)
- American Association of Geographers (2010 - Current)
Publications & Products
- Caggiano, Holly ; Landau, Laura F.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Svendsen, Erika S. 2022. Civic Stewardship and Urban Climate Governance: Opportunities for Transboundary Planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research
- Campbell, Lindsay ; Svendsen, Erika ; Johnson, Michelle ; Plitt, Sophie ; Landau, Laura. 2022. Natural resource managers adapt to disturbance: understanding and strengthening public land management and civic stewardship across both rural and urban forests during the COVID-19 pandemic. In: Building a green healthy and resillient future with forests. XV World Forestry Congress. Coes, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 9 p.
- Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Plitt, Sophie. 2022. Not by trees alone: Centering community in urban forestry. Landscape and Urban Planning
- Morzillo, Anita T.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; King, Kristen L.; Lautar, Katherine J.; Scott, Lydia ; Johnson, Michelle L.; Clarke, Mysha ; Rhodes, Luke ; Pincetl, Stephanie ; Sonti, Nancy F.; Locke, Dexter H.; Schmit, John Paul; Fahey, Robert T.; Baker, Matthew E.; Darling, Lindsay ; Johnson, Lea R. 2022. A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
- Plitt, Sophie ; Andersson, Erik ; Johnson, Michelle. 2022. Assessing the Potential of E-Tools for Knowledge Sharing and Stewardship of Urban Green Infrastructure. Arboriculture & Urban Forestry
- Sachdeva, Sonya ; Campbell, Lindsay Kathleen; Johnson, Michelle Leigh; Svendsen, Erika S. 2022. Editorial: The COVID-19 pandemic's transformation of human relationships with nature at multiple scales. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
- Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika ; Johnson, Michelle ; Landau, Laura. 2021. Activating urban environments as social infrastructure through civic stewardship. Urban Geography
- Landau, Laura F.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Johnson, Michelle L. 2021. Building Adaptive Capacity Through Civic Environmental Stewardship: Responding to COVID-19 Alongside Compounding and Concurrent Crises. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
- Svendsen, Erika S.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Plitt, Sophie ; Johnson, Michelle L. 2021. Open for All: How Are Federal and Municipal Land Management Agencies Adapting to the COVID-19 Pandemic Alongside Increased Societal Recognition of Racial Injustice. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
- Toomey, A.H. ; Campbell, L.K. ; Johnson, M. ; Strehlau-Howay, L. ; Manzolillo, B. ; Thomas, C. ; Graham, T. ; Palta, M. 2021. Place-making, place-disruption, and place protection of urban blue spaces: perceptions of waterfront planning of a polluted urban waterbody. Local Environment
- Huff, Emily S.; Johnson, Michelle ; Roman, Lara ; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Pregitzer, Clara C.; Campbell, Lindsay ; McMillen, Heather. 2020. A literature review of resilience in urban forestry. Arboriculture and Urban Forestry. 46(3): 185-196.
- Johnson, Lea R.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Aronson, Myla F. J.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Carr, Megan E.; Clarke, Mysha ; D'Amico, Vincent ; Darling, Lindsay ; Erker, Tedward ; Fahey, Robert T.; King, Kristen L.; Lautar, Katherine ; Locke, Dexter H.; Morzillo, Anita T.; Pincetl, Stephanie ; Rhodes, Luke ; Schmit, John Paul; Scott, Lydia ; Sonti, Nancy F. 2020. Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches. Urban Ecosystems
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S. 2020. Conceptualizing, analyzing, and supporting stewardship: examining the role of civil society in environmental governance. Ecology and Society
- Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Novem Auyeung, D.S. 2020. Fear and fascination: Use and perceptions of New York City's forests, wetlands, and landscaped park areas. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
- Jasny, Lorien ; Johnson, Michelle ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika ; Redmond, Josh. 2019. Working together: the roles of geographic proximity, homophilic organizational characteristics, and neighborhood context in civic stewardship collaboration networks in Philadelphia and New York City. Ecology and Society
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; McMillen, Heather L. 2019. Mapping Urban Park Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Comparison of Twitter and Semi-Structured Interview Methods. Sustainability
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Locke, Dexter H.; Svendsen, Erika ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Westphal, Lynne M.; Romolini, Michele ; Grove, J. Morgan. 2019. Context matters: influence of organizational, environmental, and social factors on civic environmental stewardship group intensity. Ecology and Society
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Novem Auyeung, D.S. ; Sonti, Nancy F.; Pregitzer, Clara C.; McMillen, Heather L.; Hallett, Richard ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Forgione, Helen M.; Kim, Mina ; Charlop-Powers, Sarah ; Svendsen, Erika S. 2019. Social-ecological research in urban natural areas: an emergent process for integration. Urban Ecosystems
- Landau, Laura ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Johnson, Michelle ; Svendsen, Erika ; Berman, Holly. 2019. STEW-MAP in the New York City region: survey results of the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-189. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 69 p.
- Muñoz-Erickson, Tischa A.; Bauer, Gerald ; Johnson, Michelle ; Pou Espinal, Ana Beatriz; Cortés, Leonardo ; Caballero, Claudia ; Ramos, Olga. 2019. Implementation of the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment project (STEWMAP) in Santo Domingo's National District, Dominican Republic. USAID Technical Report
- Hallett, Richard; Johnson, Michelle L.; Sonti, Nancy F. 2018. Assessing the tree health impacts of salt water flooding in coastal cities: A case study in New York City. Landscape and Urban Planning
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Silva, Philip. 2018. Why count trees? Volunteer motivations and experiences with tree monitoring in New York City. Arboriculture & Urban Forestry. 44(2): 59-72.
- Nowak, David J.; Bodine, Allison R.; Hoehn, Robert E.; Ellis, Alexis ; Hirabayashi, Satoshi ; Coville, Robert ; Auyeung, D.S. Novem; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Hallett, Richard A.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Stephan, Emily ; Taggart, Tom ; Endreny, Ted. 2018. The urban forest of New York City. Resource Bulletin NRS-117. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 82 p
- Pulver, Simone ; Ulibarri, Nicola ; Sobocinski, Kathryn L.; Alexander, Steven M.; Johnson, Michelle L.; McCord, Paul F.; Dell'Angelo, Jampel. 2018. Frontiers in socio-environmental research: components, connections, scale, and context. Ecology and Society
- Sorensen, Amanda E.; Jordan, Rebecca C.; Blaise, Gloria ; Brown, Jeff ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Aronson, Myla F.J.; Johnson, Michelle L. 2018. Drivers of Public Participation in Urban Restoration Stewardship Programs: Linkages Between Environmental Identity and Knowledge, and Motivations. Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2018. 44(6):266-282.
- Johnson, Michelle; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika. 2017. Why count trees: assessing volunteer motivations in participating in New York City's 2015 tree census. Queens, NY: New York City Urban Field Station; New York City Parks. 63 p. [white paper].
- Auyeung, D.S. Novem; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Johnson, Michelle; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Svendsen, Erika. 2016. Reading the landscape: citywide social assessment of New York City parks and natural areas in 2013-2014. Social Assessment White Paper No. 2. New York, NY: New York Department of Parks and Recreation. 69 p.
- Boicourt, Kate; Pirani, Robert; Johnson, Michelle; Svendsen, Erika; Campbell, Lindsay K. 2016. Connecting with our waterways: an assessment of public access and stewardship in the New York - New Jersey Harbor Estuary. New York, NY: NY-NJ Harbor and Estuary Program; and Hudson River Foundation. 36 p.
- Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Johnson, Michelle L. 2016. A social assessment of urban parkland: Analyzing park use and meaning to inform management and resilience planning. Environmental Science & Policy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.01.014
- Johnson, Michelle L.; Bell, Kathleen P.; Teisl, Mario F. 2016. Does reading scenarios of future land use changes affect willingness to participate in land use planning?. Land Use Policy. 57: 44-52.
- Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Campbell, Lindsay; Johnson, Michelle; Daftary-Steel, S. 2016. Long-term outcomes of an urban farming internship program. Journal of Experiential Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1053825916655444 [19 p.].
- Svendsen, Erika S.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Fisher, Dana R.; Connolly, James J.T.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Locke, Dexter H.; Westphal, Lynne M.; Fisher, Cherie LeBlanc; Grove, Morgan; Romolini, Michele; Blahna, Dale J.; Wolf, Kathleen L. 2016. Stewardship mapping and assessment project: a framework for understanding community-based environmental stewardship. Gen. Tech. Rep. 156. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 134 p.
National Research Highlights
In New York City, the Value of Urban Trees Adds Up
Year: 2019
New York City’s urban forest produces cleaner air, lower energy costs, reduced ultraviolet radiation, and less storm water in the city’s sewer system. USDA Forest Service scientists and partners analyzed a sample of the city’s 7 million trees and found that they provide services with an annual value of more than $100 million.