District of Sechelt Urban Forest Plan

District of Sechelt Urban Forest Plan 2010
Monetary Savings
Treed Landscapes:
a. Reduce energy bills. Shade trees reduce the demand for summer air conditioning.
Trees placed as windbreaks can reduce winter heating costs by up to 25% (Heisler
1986).
b. Reduce storm water costs. Street tree canopies intercept rainfall, reducing the amount
of storm water to be handled. For every 5% of canopy cover, storm water is reduced by
2% (Bell and Wheeler 2006).
c. Prolong the life of pavement. Shade trees reduce summer surface temperatures,
increasing pavement life by 10–25 years for roads and parking lots (McPherson and
Muchnick 2005).
d. Require municipal governments to implement fewer measures to control air
pollution, to treat drinking water, and to deal with wildlife issues (UBCM 2008).
e. Reduce per unit development costs for higher density developments. If housing units
are clustered on one portion of a site in order to protect environmentally valuable
resources, there are cost savings because there is less area to be cleared and fewer
infrastructures (e.g., roads and sewers). Cluster development can reduce the capital
cost of subdivision development by 10–33%, primarily by reducing the length of
infrastructure needed to service the development (Schueler 1995).
f. Save on infrastructure costs with ‘green’ infrastructure e.g., grassy swales rather
than conventional curb, gutter and pipe design results in savings of about $8,000 per
housing unit. Grassy swales cost about $70 per meter to install, compared to $185 per
meter for conventional storm drains (Centre for Landscape Research 2005) 10 .
10 Benefits Section Resources: Note this section was compiled primarily from existing sources and is often verbatim. Please refer to source
documents for more information.
Bell, Ryan and Jennie Wheeler. 2006. Talking Trees: An urban forestry toolkit for local governments. ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability.
Sourced in UBCM. 2008.
Centre for Landscape Research. 2005. An Economic Rationale for Integrated Storm water Management. Small Towns Initiative, Landscape
Architecture Program of University of British Columbia and Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection (Vancouver Island Region). See Case Studies.
Sourced in MOE. 2006.
Heisler, G.M. 1986. “Energy Savings with Trees.” Journal of Arboriculture, 12: 113-125. Sourced in UBCM. 2008.
International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). 2005. The Value of Trees; Benefits of Trees.
Kuo, F.E. 2003. The role of arboriculture on a healthy social ecology. Journal of Arboriculture, 29, 3: 148-155.
Royal Roads University (RRU). 2009. Buy BCWild 2009/10: Directory of Products from the Wilds of BC. Royal Roads University: The Centre for Non-
Timber Forest Products.
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