Fig. 2. Guiding questions for ecologists planning future urban greening projects.
A “for the city” paradigm for ecological research approaches urban conservation as an iterative community development process (a) for the benefit of urban residents and taxa of interest. Applying such frameworks can be difficult for scientists with disciplinary knowledge but little expertise working with a diverse set of stakeholders. We recognize that praxis often falls short of aspirational theory and provide the following set of questions and references (b) for consideration by practitioners embarking on new projects1,7,11–20. As urban conservation is complicated and context dependent, this is not an exhaustive list and references often apply to multiple questions. Moreover, we emphasize that both community development and urban conservation are long-term endeavors, not activities bounded by a research grant, and that iterative adaptions are critical to achieving positive outcomes.