Identified Benefits of Community Trees and Forests
University Outreach Publication
Community trees and forests are valuable. To the 75% of the United States population that now live in urban and suburban areas, trees provide many goods and services. Values are realized by the people that own the trees, by people nearby, and by society in general. People plant, maintain, conserve, and covet trees because of the values and benefits generated.
Tree benefits can be listed in many forms. The bottom-line is humans derive not a single-user value from community trees and forests, but a multi-product / multi-value benefit. Some of these benefits stem from components and attributes of a single tree, while other benefits are derived from groups of trees functioning together. What is the value of these multiple benefits? A 1985 study concluded that the annual ecological contribution of an average community tree was $270.
(FOR96-39) October 1996
K.D. Coder
University of Georgia School of Forest Resources
Athens, GA (US)
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FOR96-39
Appraisal and Valuation, Ecological Linkages, Economics/Cost-Benefit Analysis, Inventory (tree)
National
Tree values, Leaf characteristics
