Including public-health benefits of trees in urban-forestry decision making

Research demonstrating the biophysical benefits of urban trees are often used to justify investments in urban forestry. Far less emphasis, however, is placed on the non-bio-physical benefits such as improvements in public health. Indeed, the public-health benefits of trees may be significantly larger than the biophysical benefits, and, therefore, failure to account for the public-health benefits of trees may lead to underinvestment in urban forestry. In addition, the distribution of trees that maximizes bio-physical benefits may not maximize public-health benefits.