title
REPORT
Department: Resource Management
Request: Receive and File
Report Title: Tree Mitigation Plan
Report Period: N/A
Summary: The Board of Commissioners approved the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s (the “Preserves”) Tree Mitigation Plan on 3/21/2007. The Tree Mitigation Plan is utilized as a tool to determine the value of trees that are lost due to license and easement requests affecting Forest Preserve property. The valuation formula is driven by a dollar amount for the cross sectional area of the tree in square inches. The current standardized value of $71/in. was set by the Illinois Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture for the northern section of Illinois, and has not been updated since 2007.
In response to changing markets over the last near decade, it is recommended that the cross-sectional cost per square inch be amended to a valuation more consistent with today’s rates. An industry-recognized method is to utilize the average cost of similarly priced trees procured through the Preserves’ existing tree planting contracts to extrapolate per square inch costs. Using this method, the new value comes out to $107.54/in.
It is recommended that the Tree Mitigation Plan be updated to reflect this new value, with the option to amend this value on an annual basis according to changes in the Consumer Price Index.
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