Cities Are Investing Tax Dollars … On Trees. Here’s Why It Works

Caleigh Wells · May 19, 2026

Featuring Kathy Woldf, PhD, member of the Center’s Research Collaborative and Coalition

“If you wind all that up across a full population and entire city, then you start to see the benefit of these tree-planting programs,” said Kathleen Wolf, research social scientist at the University of Washington.

She specializes in urban forestry and has no problem rattling off plenty of other reasons trees save cities money — air quality, water quality, stormwater management. She said the stormwater management benefits are substantial because root structures and canopies make it easier for land to deal with rainfall. That translates to dollars saved on watering nearby plants and tax dollars saved on storm runoff infrastructure.

All of that has led cities to invest more in planting trees.

“With the research about ecosystem services of urban trees, parks, green spaces, about health benefits, wow, that has really surged in the last decade or two,” Wolf said.