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A growing body of literature and experience revolves around the beneficial and connected relationships among nature, social settings, and social processes like interaction. This literature argues that the natural environment is a critical component of personal and community pride and well-being and a stimulus for collaborative action. Furthermore, it argues that empowering people to become involved in the process of landscape and park creation and maintenance increases social interaction, builds community capacity, and supports both development of community and community. Tree plantings and other civic environmental projects can be used to promote both healthy environments and healthy social structure even in the most deteriorated neighborhoods. As such, participatory environmental projects are strong tools of community development, and the work of arborists and urban foresters can play an important part in the process of community.

When gathering information and planning for community forest policies and programs, planners, municipal foresters, and arborists can find it difficult to identify, involve, and listen to all persons important and affected. Accordingly, the concerns, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of some people continue to be misstated, unknown, and ignored. Furthermore, some people continue to be excluded in information gathering and planning either by design or lack of effort, which can lead to poor information and planning, increased conflict and cost of conflict, poor collaboration, and increased mistrust and apathy. Use of key informant interviews, focus groups, and visual techniques such as stakeholder mapping, vision galleries, and sacred place mapping can help planners, municipal foresters, and arborists to better develop mail and telephone surveys. These methods can also be used to gather information about people's opinions and attitudes, help identify and include both insiders and outsiders in the community forest planning process, and help reduce conflict.

Open space provides people and the places where they live with numerous, well-documented benefits, very similar to those of trees and other landscaping. Often lost in the complicated development and growth arena, planning for the conservation of the green infrastructure of open space is important for healthy communities. The process of open space conservation provides arborists and urban foresters with opportunities to involve the community in planning and activism. Conserved open space provides arborists and urban foresters with maintenance and management opportunities and responsibilities. Although expensive and time-consuming, key informant interviews helped provide a logical process for a deeper understanding of open space conservation in a developing Pennsylvania watershed. This qualitative process can be used by urban foresters and others in more inclusive and successful planning and decision making. As an investigative tool, the interviews provided information about attitudes, issues, and obstacles expressed by local leaders. The interviews also provided evidence that concerns expressed by experienced planners since the 1960s about land use planning and open space conservation in growing areas continue to be relevant today.