AN assessment of 69 plane trees in Inverell conducted by the Concerned Inverell Ratepayers Association (CIRA) has assigned a worth of about $2 million, according to association president Caroline Wilson.
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CIRA used an internationally accepted table of values devised by the American Council of Tree and Landscape Appraiser and the International Society of Arboriculture.
“We felt that we erred on the side of caution when it came to working out the formula, and although other people might come to a slightly different figure, we still think about $2 million is around the ballpark figure,” Ms Wilson said.
She said CIRA wanted to bring attention to the fact that ‘green assets’ such as trees should also be valued in the mix of councils ‘grey assets’, such as guttering, paving and the like.
“We’ve come to understand through our research, such as our consultation with the Melbourne City Council, that many councils value both of those assets,” Ms Wilson said.
“We feel that the council is only considering the depreciating grey assets and they’re not factoring in the value of the green assets.”
Ms Wilson said CIRA would like to see council have a full tree inventory, with all the trees assessed and their monetary value taken into consideration.
She said CIRA felt that their petition to council showing community concern had been ignored and that there was a stalemate between the two organisations.
Director of Civil and Environmental Brett McInnes said CIRA’s assessment was certainly interesting and something council would look at and take into consideration.
“There’s no doubt that with anyone trying to apportion value to a tree that there is a diverse range of opinions in relation to that,” Mr McInnes said.
“They’ve chosen to adopt the formula used by Melbourne City Council (MCC), and there are some who would question how strong the correlation with what happening on the ground in Inverell is with MCC,” Mr McInnes said.
“I’m not aware of the skills or qualifications of the individuals who undertook that assessment. So it’s a bit hard to review it with some degree of rigour when that’s unknown.”
Mr McInnes said he was not sure whether the CIRA document had taken into consideration how individual trees were compromised when they were originally planted.
“I’m confident it would generate quite a few questions from councillors,” Mr McInnes said.
He said council would also take into consideration other aspects of the total equation, including damage to surrounding infrastructure and previous advice received about the management of the trees.