 curban trail with adjacent greenery (photo by xjhy) |
primarily from UC Santa Cruz's Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
With the primary goal of setting values on natural features for insurance purposes, the University of Californa Santa Cruz has been working to quantify how urban trees benefit humans and municipalities themselves. Storms are an insurable risk, and stakeholders need to estimate the cost to restore urban green spaces to determine an insurable value.
Three values were calculated and they are "likely underestimated," states Heather Tallis, co-author of the report.
California's 173.2 million urban trees represent a $181 billion asset, generating $8 billion in services per year. For comparison, the combined financial value of California's highway infrastructure, buildings and other depreciable property in 2023 totaled $143.4 billion.
A study of 5 million Northern California residents found that those living in the greenest areas paid $374 less per year in adjusted health care costs, compared to those living in areas with fewer trees.
Planting, caring for and maintaining urban and community forests contributed $12.9 billion to California's economy in 2021, supporting 78,560 jobs.
Other benefits which have been identified, but not yet quantified include improved educational outcomes for elementary students with access to green space, and faster recovery times for patients who can even see greenery from windows.
In Michigan, two organizations which support planting trees are Releaf Michigan and the Arbor Day Foundation where you can get 10 trees/shrubs suitable for your climate zone for a minimal donation.
See a longer article on this topic at Phys.org
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