What Tree Should I Plant?
The Making of A Guide for Selecting Riparian Trees and Shrubs in Virginia
Lauren Huey
Director of Environmental Communication
About the Guide
A Focus on Community
Recognizing that the end goal is a functioning riparian forest, we highlighted the tree species as parts of a community.
The Species Pages
We relied on icons to strip down as much of the text as possible.
The Species Pages
We relied on icons to strip down as much of the text as possible.
Keeping in mind that our audience is broad and our goal is to celebrate and pique interest in the plants, we took an informal tone.
How We Built It
Proposal to the Steering Committee
Stakeholder interviews
Mock up
Feedback webinar
Species and title selected through survey of Steering Committee
First draft
Feedback webinar
Final review
Lessons Learned
Folks are willing to contribute time, expertise, and photographs; you just need to connect with the right partners.
If your goal is to engage a lot of folks, you need to be prepared for a lot of feedback (and actually listening with an open mind). This may make the review process lengthy.
Other examples
Outreach Toolkit
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Restoration Guide
Thank you!
Lauren Huey - lauren@greenfinstudio.com
Greenfinstudio.com
Questions and thoughts on the guide or our process?
Discussion
Have you created an engagement-based product and have lessons learned to share?
Do you see an opportunity to engage stakeholders around a need?