A recent study found that trees in the UK have a huge economic value, benefiting people to the tune of billions of pounds annually. This study also highlighted the importance of trees standing alone and in small groups. The trees minimise toxic air pollution, absorb CO2 that warms the climate, slow the flow of rainwater, reducing flood risks, and reduce toxic air pollution.
Millions of these trees can be found throughout the country, totaling 750,000 hectares and constituting 20% of the country’s total tree cover. The report is the first to estimate the value of trees found in gardens, parks, fields, and along UK streets. The value of woodland has already been estimated.
According to its findings, the annual value of the services provided by non-woodland trees ranges from £1.4 billion to £3.8 billion, depending on the methodology used.
The estimates, according to the researchers, are cautious because many advantages, such as the improvement in wildlife and people’s mental health, are difficult to measure.
According to the study, a huge tree with a canopy diameter of 30 metres generates hundreds of pounds’ worth of benefits annually. Although the largest trees can be valued at more than £100,000, it was estimated separately that the average replacement cost of a tree is £2,500. The report placed a £429 billion value on non-woodland trees overall. In a time when funds are tight, the researchers suggested their study may be used by local authorities to defend the costs of maintaining and growing trees.
Lead author of the study and director of Forest Research’s urban forest research section, Kieron Doick, said the importance of single and small groups of trees struck him on a recent walk. “As I walked home, I was passing trees all around my town, along the highway, single ones in people’s gardens, some at the intersections,” he said. “It represented to me the diversity and coverage of the trees that are in our everyday lives, but are not in woodlands.”
“The numbers are substantial,” Doick said. “These trees are at least as valuable in terms of providing benefits to people as woodland trees and we still aren’t even considering all of the benefits.
“This research will help support decision-makers to justify the spending on the resource management, research and maintenance of our non-woodland trees in the same way they do our woodland trees.”
According to the methods utilised, the analysis indicated that the removal and storage of CO2 accounted for a half to two-thirds of the economic benefit from non-woodland trees. A fifth to a third of the advantages were attributable to the reduction in air pollution, which was also substantial. Cooling local temperatures on hot days and shielding individuals from noise pollution were smaller but still significant additional benefits. The investigation covered both single urban and rural trees as well as groupings of trees with a total area of less than 0.5 hectares.
An earlier study assessed the average tree canopy cover in 283 English towns and cities to be 16%, while another study said this should increase to at least 20%. a project for citizen scientists found.
With the help of its collaborators, Forest Research is conducting a citizen science initiative to map the urban canopy cover in the UK. According to Doick, there were wide variations in the health of urban trees: “In certain cities, their population will have a very high percentage categorised as in very good or exceptional condition. It won’t be as prevalent in other regions.
This week, the government revealed that the forest creation accelerator fund had awarded roughly £10 million to 57 local councils in England to jump-start tree-planting initiatives. “Our trees, forests, and woods are the nation’s lungs and serve as a potent weapon in the fight against climate change,” said Trudy Harrison, the minister of forestry. Locally, trees are vital to a community’s well-being and are their lifeblood.
Adam Cormack, at the Woodland Trust, said: “This important new research shows the extraordinary financial value of the trees in our streets, our parks and our countryside, [which] should be worthy of the highest level of protection. Yet, we know this isn’t the case. For example, eastern England has lost 50% of its large trees in the past 150 years.”
The “incalculable cultural value” of trees was not covered by the research, Cormack said. “This is especially true for our oldest and most important trees, which don’t have the automatic legal protection that most of our wildlife and old buildings have. These astonishing trees are our inheritance from history, and we should be treating them like national treasures.”
Mike Childs, of Friends of the Earth’s said: “Estimating the economic value of trees is fraught with difficulties and inevitably fails to capture all the benefits. But the government shouldn’t need this type of exercise to realise that we need more trees in our towns, cities and countryside.”
“The government’s suggestion of increasing tree cover in England from 14.5% to 17.5% by 2050 is completely inadequate,” Childs said. “Instead, it should be aiming to double tree cover and ensure that every street and neighbourhood reaps the undoubted benefits from having trees on their doorstep.”
Although it assumed a significantly lower value for carbon storage, the benefits of the UK’s 3 million hectares of woodlands were assessed in 2018 to be worth £4.9 billion annually. According to a research from 2021, walking in UK woodlands reduces annual mental-health spending by £185 million.
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