Compensatory value of urban trees in the United States

Compensatory valuation is one of several methods for estimating the value of trees. The compensatory value of a tree represents what should be paid as compensation should that tree be lost. The formula for determining this value was developed by the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers (CTLA); it incorporates the tree’s basal area (the cross-sectional area of the tree at 4.5’ aboveground), species, location, and condition. In this article, data collected during UFORE studies of eight U.S. cities were used to estimate the compensatory values of the urban forests and to extrapolate that information to the conterminous United States. The compensatory values of the studied cities ranged from $101 million for Jersey City, NJ, to $5.2 billion for New York City. The total compensatory value of the urban forests of the United States was estimated at $2.4 trillion.