This book explores the specifically human dimensions of the problem posed by a new generation of invasive pests and pathogens to tree health worldwide. The growth in global trade and transportation in recent decades, along with climate change, is allowing invasive pests and pathogens to establish in new environments, with profound consequences for the ecosystem services provided by trees and forests, and impacts on human wellbeing. The central theme of the book is to consider the role that social science can play in better understanding the social, economic and environmental impacts of such tree disease and pest outbreaks. Contributions include explorations of how pest outbreaks are socially constructed, drawing on the historical, cultural, social and situated contexts of outbreaks; the governance and economics of tree health for informing policy and decision-making; stakeholder engagement and communication tools; along with more philosophical approaches that draw on environmental ethics to consider non-human perspectives. Taken together the book makes theoretical, methodological and applied contributions to our understanding of this important subject area and encourages researchers from across the social sciences and humanities to bring their own disciplinary perspectives and expertise to address the complexity that is the human dimensions of forest and tree health.

Chapters 5 and 11 are open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com. 

Julie Urquhart is a Senior Research Fellow at the Countryside& Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK.
Mariella Marzano is a Senior Social Scientist in Forest Research at the Northern Research Station, UK.
Clive Potter is Professor of Environmental Policy at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, UK.

Chapter 1 Introducing the human dimensions of forest and tree health; Julie Urquhart, Mariella Marzano, Clive Potter.- Chapter 2 English tree populations: economics, agency and the problem of the natural; Tom Williamson, Gerry Barnes, Toby Pillatt.- Chapter 3 Local knowledge on tree health in forest villages in Turkey; Akile Gürsoy.- Chapter 4 Mountain pine beetles and ecological imaginaries: The social construction of forest insect disturbance; Elizabeth W. Prentice, Hua Qin, Courtney G. Flint.- Chapter 5 Indigenous biosecurity: Mori responses to Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust in Aotearoa, New Zealand; Simon Lambert, Nick Waipara, Amanda Black, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, Waitangi Wood.- Chapter 6 User generated content: what can the forest health sector learn?; John Fellenor, Julie Barnett, Glyn Jones.- Chapter 7 The social amplification of tree health risks: The case of ash dieback disease in the UK; Julie Urquhart, Clive Potter, Julie Barnett, John Fellenor, John Mumford, Chris Quine.- Chapter 8 Implementing plant health regulations with focus on invasive forest pests and pathogens: examples from Swedish forest nurseries; E. Carina H. Keskitalo, Caroline Strömberg, Johanna Boberg, Maartje Klapwijk, Maria Pettersson, Jonàs Oliva Palau, Jan Stenlid.- Chapter 9 The economics analysis of plant health and the needs of policy makers; Glyn Jones.- Chapter 10 Stated willingness to pay for tree health protection: perceptions and realities; Colin Price.- Chapter 11 The use of rubrics to improve integration and engagement between biosecurity agencies and their key partners and stakeholders: a surveillance example; Will Allen, Andrea Grant, Lynsey Earl, Rory MacLellan, Nick Waipara, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, Shaun Ogilvie, ER (Lisa) Langer, Mariella Marzano.- Chapter 12 Enhancing socio-technological innovation for tree health through stakeholder participation in biosecurity science; Mariella Marzano, Rehema White, Glyn Jones.- Chapter 13 Gaming with deadwood: How to better teach forest protection when bugs are lurking everywhere; Marian Dragoi.- Chapter 14 The effects of mountain pine beetle on drinking water quality: Assessing communication strategies and knowledge levels in the Rocky Mountain Region; Katherine M. Mattor, Stuart P. Cottrell, Michael R. Czaja, John D. Stednick, Eric R.V. Dickenson.- Chapter 15 Forest collaborative groups engaged in forest health issues in eastern Oregon - Emily Jane Davis, Eric M. White, Meagan L. Nuss, Donald R. Ulrich.- Chapter 16 Environmental ethics of forest health: Alternative stories of Asian longhorn beetle management in the UK; Norman Dandy, Emily Porth, Ros Hague.- Chapter 17 Towards a more-than-human approach to tree health; Alison Dyke, Annemarieke de Bruin, Hilary Geoghegan.- Chapter 18 Towards an agenda for social science contributions on the human dimensions of forest health; Mariella Marzano& Julie Urquhart.