Trees provide a range of short and long-term benefits to those living in and around urban and rural trees. Up until recently, most of our understanding of these benefits have been anecdotal at best—trees provide shade, they produce oxygen, etc. Our ability to quantify these benefits can only better inform the development of more effective green infrastructure policies for park systems. A suite of shareware applications, collectively called iTree and developed by the United States Forest Service provides simple tools for staff to assess and quantify various components of their tree population. Natural Path can take details from existing inventories and quickly produce a cost/benefit analysis of the trees to the community.
|
Table 2 – Glencoe Park District
iTree Benefits Analysis
|
|
Benefit Type
|
Benefits
|
|
Volume
|
Dollar
|
Per Tree
|
| Energy Benefits |
| Electricity |
367 (MWh)
|
$27,839
|
$38.09
|
| Natural Gas |
50,290 (Therms)
|
$49,284
|
|
| Carbon Dioxide Sequestered |
710,973 (lbs)
|
$9,496
|
$4.69
|
| Air Quality |
| Deposition |
846 (lbs)
|
$2,670
|
$6.38
|
| Avoided |
3,912 (lbs)
|
$10,911
|
|
| Stormwater Interception |
3,414,681 (Gal)
|
$92,544
|
$45.70
|
| Stored Carbon |
11,679,786 (lbs)
|
$87,598
|
$43.26
|
| Aesthetic |
|
$75,804
|
$37.43
|
|
TOTAL
|
|
$267,887
|
$132.29
|
The following are some tools that we provide at no charge to familiarize yourself with the system.
- Community Tree Guide – Midwest
- iTree Streets Data Structure
- iTree Streets User Manual
- NPU
- FC Punch List for Parks
iTree
Trees provide a range of short and long-term benefits to those living in and around urban and rural trees. Up until recently, most of our understanding of these benefits have been anecdotal at best—trees provide shade, they produce oxygen, etc. Our ability to quantify these benefits can only better inform the development of more effective green infrastructure policies for park systems. A suite of shareware applications, collectively called iTree and developed by the United States Forest Service provides simple tools for staff to assess and quantify various components of their tree population. Natural Path can take details from existing inventories and quickly produce a cost/benefit analysis of the trees to the community.
Table 2 – Glencoe Park District
iTree Benefits Analysis
Benefit Type
Benefits
Volume
Dollar
Per Tree
367 (MWh)
$27,839
$38.09
50,290 (Therms)
$49,284
710,973 (lbs)
$9,496
$4.69
846 (lbs)
$2,670
$6.38
3,912 (lbs)
$10,911
3,414,681 (Gal)
$92,544
$45.70
11,679,786 (lbs)
$87,598
$43.26
$75,804
$37.43
TOTAL
$267,887
$132.29
The following are some tools that we provide at no charge to familiarize yourself with the system.