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The New York Times today (May 21) covers a report on a study commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Education that “tries to put a dollar value on the state’s natural resources, from the Jersey Shore to the Kittatinny Mountains, to places like, well, Weehawken.” The article reports that values ranged from about $1,470 per acre in the Pine Barrens to $42,000 for the “environmentally essential sand dunes” at Beaches like Sandy Hook and Sea Girt.

The Times has also reported, most recently in April, on a similar study by UC Davis experts that assigned a monetary value to New York City’s trees (see “Maybe Only God Can Make a Tree,” April 18 by David K. Randall), specifically accounting for values including the carbon they sequester and the real estate price improvements they confer.

Both stories indicate to us that policymakers are finding social return on investment analysis to be an increasingly useful tool to raise awareness about all the benefits of natural assets when budget decisions are being made.