How much is nature really worth?

Keystone Conservation Trust’s John Rogers sought to answer that question for Kidder Township during a presentation at Thursday’s meeting.

The Return on Environment study, a product of a partnership between the Trust, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources an

d Audubon Pennsylvania, approached the difficult task in order to shed some light on the importance of natural resources in a world where many processes are being replaced by man-made equivalents. When pollution affects naturally clean headwaters, for example, costly filtration systems may step in to clean up the mess.

“Putting a dollar value on nature’s services helps people understand both the financial significance and the connection that nature has with our quality of life, our health, our cost of living, our sense of place, and indeed, our economy,” Rogers said.

Those values, Rogers said, could help solve around 70 percent of the short and long-term environmental problems that affect the township and county at large, including issues like sprawl, stormwater management, flooding, water quality and habitat loss.

Likewise, the environmental health of the area is intrinsically tied into the health of the economy, as outdoor recreation is a pivotal moneymaker in Kidder Township.

“The first rule of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else, because it’s a system. Well, the economy is a system as well. These two systems are interconnected, so whatever you do to nature ripples through the economy, and vice versa,” Rogers said.

Rogers explained that thanks to the wealth of streams and forests in the township, the open spaces provide $139 million per year in natural system services’ financial benefits. The existing 100-foot-wide riparian buffer, which helps with stormwater management, flood protection, water supply and more adds another $20.6 million to the total.

Protecting those environmental resources is key to the long-term health of the area, Rogers said, as bringing the area back to full capacity can take between 50 to 100 years.

“If we lose that capacity, we have to spend taxpayer dollars often to replace those services,” he said.

Open spaces also contribute greatly to the overall health of area residents. When people are inspired to get outside and exercise — as they are in Kidder Township, thanks to numerous outdoor activities — health care costs drop around $1,423 annually per person, on average.

“What really creates this value is the fact that we have what we call biological diversity, which is just the sum of all the native plants and animals that have been working together for over 14,000 years. Now, nature helps us manage our risks, because it operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Rogers said.

In order to create a value, the researchers had to compare the services provided by nature to the those initiated by humans.

“We looked at fines, regulatory costs, cost of replacements, conservation easements and tax benefits,” Rogers said.

For example, in order to create a value for stormwater management, researchers looked at the cost for man-made management efforts and found a cost-per-acre rate, which was applied to the regions in the area that naturally help manage the stormwater.

These solid numerical figures can help the township when it comes to economic development and steering protection efforts. When you realize the dollar value of a tree’s services — air cleansing, water management and so on — the understanding of nature’s importance to the local economic climate becomes that much more dire and apparent.

Supervisor Barbara Frazosa said that the information found in the Return on Environment study is an invaluable resource, especially when it comes to grant writing to protect natural resources and planning and development for future business ventures in the area.

“People see the trees, but they don’t think about what they’re worth. Now, this information puts a value on it, and money means things to people,” she said.