Phillips High School students are showing the value of trees in their community. For the past three years the students have been inventorying the trees in the community. Over those years the project has continued to grow each year, from collecting data on trees to identifying planting sites, and now building community awareness by putting price tags on trees.

Working with the Phillips Tree Committee, the students learned in an outdoor classroom and got to implement what they are learning on-the-spot. The students were trained on how to find the monetary value of a single tree using i-Tree. The cost savings a tree can provide were broken down by the numerous benefits: carbon removal, reduced air condition cost, improve water quality, and more. The students used this information and created large price tags that tell community members exactly how much an individual tree is giving back to Phillips. Hopefully these price tags will bring awareness to the public about the importance of the trees that line their streets.

For more information contact Marjory Brzeskiewicz, Botanist with the Phillips Tree Committee at mbrzeskiewicz@fs.fed.us.