Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 41(6): November 2015 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2015. 41(6): 293–323 293 The Costs of Maintaining and Not Maintaining the Urban Forest: A Review of the Urban Forestry and Arboriculture Literature Jess Vogt, Richard J. Hauer, and Burnell C. Fischer Abstract. Existing urban forest literature is strongest in its quantification and qualification of the benefits and care of trees, and not in its ability to assess the results of lack of investment in trees. This paper presents the results of a literature review on the “Costs of Not Maintaining Trees” commissioned by the ISA Science and Research Committee. The authors summarized the literature from within the field of arboriculture/urban forestry to answer the questions: What are the costs of maintaining trees and the urban forest? And, What are the costs of not maintaining trees? Present here is a detailed summary of the literature on the costs of maintenance and lack of maintenance for types of tree care commonly included in municipal budgets (planting, pruning, removal, pest and disease manage- ment) and a brief review of costs associated with less-studied types of tree care (including tree risk management; watering; mulching; fertilizing and nutrient management; staking, cabling, and bracing; tree protection; and infrastructure repair). The authors suggest that future literature should aim to examine the influence of maintenance regimes on costs and tree outcomes, including examining how the frequency, intensity, duration, and extent of tree maintenance activities is connected to the structure, function, and benefits of trees. Key Words. Cost of Not Maintaining Trees; Literature Review; Maintenance Costs; Pruning; Planting; Removal; Municipal Forestry; Deferred Maintenance; Urban Forestry; Urban Tree Maintenance. The benefits of trees are frequently monetized and valued. Researchers and practitioners of urban for- estry can put a value on the benefits of trees with reasonable ease, using the i-Tree soſtware (or its precursors, STRATUM and UFORE, now the i-Tree Streets and Eco modules, respectively) and other di- rect or implied valuation methods [e.g., the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers (CTLA) valuation methods, replacement cost valuation, willingness- to-pay surveys, hedonic property value methods]. The value of these benefits is frequently then used to justify investments in trees (e.g., McPherson et al. 2005; Peper et al. 2009). Ideally, an economic analysis of urban tree benefits accounts for costs associated with planting through removal to cre- ate net benefit models (i.e., through benefit-cost analysis). Net benefits occur when benefits ex- ceed the costs incurred to obtain these benefits. The costs of urban tree maintenance and manage- ment are less understood. In a systematic review of studies that examine the benefits and costs of urban trees, Roy et al. (2012) found that only 15.6% (18) of 115 papers reviewed discussed the problems or costs of urban trees. The most common type of problem discussed was environmental (e.g., the release of volatile organic compounds), while explicit costs (e.g., money paid for tree pruning services) are most frequently monetized only in terms of budget outlays or expenditures by municipal urban forestry programs (Roy et al. 2012). Studies that examine the costs and benefits of the urban forest—in an attempt to calculate the net value of urban trees, for instance—frequently weigh municipal budgets (“costs”) against the ecosystem services (“bene- fits”) produced by public trees (e.g., McPherson et al. 2005; McPherson et al. 2006; Peper et al. 2009). Tree maintenance funding at the municipal level is limited by the economic principle of scarce resources. There are only so many resources (e.g., money, time) available to allocate. Tree care budgets are frequently considered non-essential or less-essential city ser- vices when compared to police departments, fire ©2015 International Society of Arboriculture
November 2015
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