47
Urban Forestry Program Budget, 2007-Present Available budget records and Tree City USA renewal applications were reviewed to determine the amount that was budgeted for urban forestry program expenses (Table 16). These expens- es include Landscape Services (contracted tree planting, maintenance, and removal), Urban Forestry Projects (Arbor Day, public education, volunteer tree planting projects, tools, sup- plies, equipment, training, memberships, and other expenses) , Urban Forestry Administration (contracted management, 2007-2009), and employee salaries and benefits. Per-capita funding for the urban forestry program has decreased by 47% over the last 6 years. Funding per tree could not be calculated, but likely decreased significantly during this period. Additionally, most of the trees increased in size, and therefore maintenance costs.
Comparison to Other Municipalities’ Budgets PER CAPITA In order to qualify as a Tree City USA, Wake Forest needs to spend a minimum of $2.00 per capita on its urban forestry program. Towns with a population the size of Wake Forest spend an average of $8.73 per capita (APWA 2007a). The program’s funding level was above this rate between 2007 and 2010. If Wake Forest (popula- tion 31,073) were to return to this level of funding, the annual budget would be $271,267.
FIGURE 17 : Annual per Tree Spending of Wake Forest and Other Municipalities (City of Burlington 2003, CUFR 2005, CUFR 2006)
$34.85
$22.73
$21.37
$15.26
Wake Forest
Charlotte NC
Charleston SC
Burlington VT
TABLE 18: Estimated Costs and Benefits of Wake Forest’s Street Trees Over 40 Years (from USFS 2006).
# OF TREES ANNUAL COSTS
ANNUAL NET BENEFITS
AVERAGE ANNUAL BENEFITS
NET BENEFITS OVER 40 YEARS
BENEFIT/ COST RATIO
Small Trees
4,740
$113,774 $85,331 $170,661 $1,327,366
1.50
Medium Trees
2,750
$65,929
$96,146 $145,593 $2,637,151
2.21
Conifers
1,510
$37,674
$66,306
$90,417 $1,687,777
2.40
Large Trees
5,680
$153,426 $522,784 $636,432 $17,956,485 4.15
TOTAL
14,700
$370,802 $770,566 $1,043,103 $23,608,779 2.81
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