The economic value of recovering the town of Oakville's urban forest after the impacts of the emerald ash borer

Abstract

The Town of Oakville is responsible for maintaining some 2,016,500 city trees planted within boulevards on the city’s streets (UFORE 2016). Prior to the emerald ash borer, ash trees represented the top 5 most trees planted in Oakville’s city owned streets and parks (UFORE 2016). Additionally, ash make up approximately 3.6% of Oakville’s urban forest. The occupation of urban forestry provides benefits which include the care and maintenance of street trees within cities and metro areas. Benefits to residents of these areas include improved air quality, lower urban air temperatures, stormwater management, added property values and a reduction of municipal property costs (Zabret 2015). Within this study, white and green ash diameter at breast height (dbh) were categorized into different dbh classes and averaged. The total benefits were attained (or provided) by the National Street Tree Benefit Calculator and combined to get a total cumulative loss of $1,984,226.46 CAD if these trees were to die off. However, errors in this study were concluded that the economic cost of a dollar were to be in current value in 2019. Additionally, there was another error that the town of Oakville did not document why the ash tree was removed. Further research will be required and needed increase comprehension of the results of this study. However, the Town of Oakville is implementing strategic management plans in order to still ensure a diverse and well beneficial urban forest.