Hi thanks to all of you who replied to this thread, I have plenty to go on
for the moment, working with a developer he yesterday showed me several trees
they have saved and what amenity value in £'s they have put on these. One
tree is on a new industrial estate, they jiggled all the road layout so that
they could accommodate a 350 year old oak into the park it is now in the
centre of a roundabout which wasn't originally planned. The tree didn't have
a TPO on it, if only all developers were like this..... They believed the
tree added £250,000 - £350,000 amenity to the site.
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Cullen [mailto:dscottcul@xxxx.net]
Sent: 13 June 2007 20:01
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: Re: putting a price on trees
It is VERY important to distinguish among the uses and meanings of "cost."
You correctly note the difference between cost of production adn cost of
replacement. Economists often work in terms of cost of production, or like
accountanst, "historical cost." This is the meaning Rodney Helliwell seemd
to use in a recent letter to The Chartered Forester. It cost 10GBP to plant
that little beech tree 80 years ago and today it might be worth 10,000 (or
whatever). In an apprasial context, cost is usually taken by contrast to be
current replacement cost, IOW something as big and grand as the 80 year old
beech. Neihter might euql value, they certainly not identies. But they
provide two very different starting points to guide decisons.
The interesting output of the STRATUM model is that adding up the
environmental benefits and netting out the planting cots, maintence and even
final removal cost street trees have net vale >0. IOW they don't cost, they
pay. That is a useful datum for decison making even if there are other
benefits that neab total value is higher.
SC
----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Valente
To: UK Tree Care
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: putting a price on trees
"The value to an artist to make that egg based paint (whatever they call
it) might vary"
An interesting point. Growing (or cultivating) a tree is a bit like art.
How much does it cost to paint a picture? The value of that painted picture
is often way above what it cost to produce (or replace) it.
It would appear that its not as easy to put a hypothetical price on a tree
as it is on a human life. Still it gives us something to do when we've got no
trees to chop down :-)
Simon Valente
========================================
Message Received: Jun 13 2007, 10:52 AM
From: "Scott Cullen"
To: "UK Tree Care"
Cc:
Subject: Re: putting a price on trees
The dozen eggs analogy is misleading. It asume sthat there is one value
only and that is for making breakfast. It is rather like the Helliwell System
assuming that nobody wants to no anything about tree value but visual
amenity. BUt the value of the eggs (price paid) to you for your own breakfast
might vary from the value to the B&B which marks them up 32x (revenue
earned). The value to an artist to make that egg based paint (whatever they
call it) might vary, the value to the lads who want to throw them at
unpopular politicians may be way more than price if they get their point in
the papers, a lot less if they get thrown in jail!
Tree guys may want to believe or prefer that amenity trees should be like
home-consumption market goods. Typicakky trained in the natural or physical
sciences or trhe trades and following Shigo's dictum, want to touch trees.
They want value to be like weight or color os some other constant physical
characteristic yhat can me measured. It can't. It is not that kind of quality
or characteristic.
So John is right, there is no one problem nor one value. So should we
throiw up our hands and give up? Say why bother? Let's back up a step. Why do
we bother? What is valuation about? Valuation is an aid to decison makers.
What decsion needs to be made? Who needs to make it? If we (arbs) can't get
our heads 'round that need to define the problem and put away our diameter
tapes, we shouldn't be trying to be valuers.
IMO valuation should be a specilaty. You wouldn't send the same crew out to
dismantle a huge dnagerous dead tree and to prune the 200 year old topiaries!
DIfferent skills, different personalities.
Thanks to John for reminding me about defining the problem. The literature
is very clear about all this. Lots of citations in my upcoming paper in
Arboricultural Journal.
SC
----- Original Message -----
From: Andersonarb@xxxx.com
To: UK Tree Care
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 5:04 AM
Subject: Re: putting a price on trees
In a message dated 13/06/2007 09:35:19 GMT Standard Time,
j.heuch@xxxxxxxxxxx.com writes:
I've no time to go into it in detail but you do really need to sort defining
the problem before identifying how to solve it. There is no one solution or
value.
You see? We start with a conundrum; the price of half a dozen free range
eggs in Sainsbury's is pretty well fixed whether you're using them for an
omelette or a full English breakfast. It doesn't change depending on why
you want
em.
Bill.
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Trees are for life, not just for christmas.
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