Last spring TD Economics released a paper called “Urban Forests: The Value of Trees in the City of Toronto.” Interest in the paper has been huge, with many requests for the bank’s economic think tank to examine other urban forests in Canada. The result is a further paper: “The Value of Urban Forests in Cities across Canada,” which looks at the economic value of the environmental benefits of forests in and around Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver.
Let me share a few highlights from the report:
- The greater Halifax, Montreal, and Vancouver areas together contain more than 100 million trees, worth an estimated $51 billion (Halifax: $11.5b; Montreal: $4.5b; Vancouver: $35b).
- The return on trees is significant: for each dollar spent on maintenance, between $1.88 and $12.70 in benefits are realized each year, depending on the city.
- Urban forests within Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver together provide environmental benefits of over $250 million per year – more than $330 million per year when Toronto is included.
To read the full report, visit “The Value of Urban Forests in Cities across Canada”
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Karen Clarke-Whistler is the Chief Environment Officer for TD Bank Group.