Introducing the i-Tree Leeds project, where they are attempting to define the economic benefits of urban trees. The Woodland Trust has written about the project here.
A new study has shown that a hectare of urban trees can lock in, or sequester, nearly as much climate-warming carbon dioxide as the equivalent area of rainforest. This is just one of the many ecosystem services provided by trees at a very low cost. In this current heat wave many people in the UK are waking up to the fact that our urban areas would be intolerable without the shade and cooler microclimates created by trees.