Burnside’s multimillion-dollar trees revealed

Why are Adelaide’s leafy suburbs so expensive? Maybe it has something to do with the value of their greenery. Trees in Hazelwood Park alone are worth an eye-watering amount, a new study has found.

500 trees in Hazelwood Park captured more than 1000 tonnes of carbon

• “Cash for trees” program proposed by Burnside councillor
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Trees in Hazelwood Park reserve in the leafy eastern suburbs are worth more than $8.7 million, a new study has found.

Burnside Council is about to start calculating the value of more than 1000 trees in Tusmore Park and Kensington Gardens Reserve after an initial study into the economic, environmental and community worth of trees in Hazelwood Park.

That study – using internationally renowned software i-Tree Eco – also found 507 trees in the park trapped more than 1000 tonnes of emissions in their lifetime.

The $8.7 million figure took into account their replacement value and the “ecosystem services” they provided, including carbon sequestration, air pollution removal and stormwater run-off interception.

The trees also stored 1070 cumulative tonnes of carbon.

Burnside Council’s co-ordinator of environmental assets Ben Seamark said the new study would educate residents on the value of trees.

“It’s showing the community the benefits that trees provide, like any other council asset,” Mr Seamark said.

“When people look at a road (with trees), they can see it’s worth ‘X’ amount of dollars.”

Mr Seamark said the 500 trees provided close to $6000 each year in ecosystem services.

But he said the valuation was conservative.

“It doesn’t include property value that trees provide to a local area, plus psychological benefits,” he said.

“They’re actually worth more, possibly double.”

The easiest way to understand the value of trees was to estimate the cost of a machine to replace a tree’s function, such as an air purifier in a park or water treatment plant in a waterway, he said.

The species which provided the highest economic value – and trapped the greatest volume of air pollution and carbon – was the river red gum, while SA blue gums intercepted the highest amount of rainfall.

The study found larger, mature and healthy trees provided the highest value within the park.

“As they get older, the value they return to the community increases,” Mr Seamark said.

The council will upload the information to its website to better inform residents about the value of trees.

There are 37,000 public trees in the Burnside Council area.

A 2016 study found the district had lost nearly 10 per cent of tree canopy over a five-year period.