[CANUFNET] Tangible Capital Asset Registry - Reporting Trees andUrban Forest Assets

[Ian Wilson]

Hi Russell,
 
I sent out a similar inquiry a couple months ago but didn't hear
anything back.
 
The City of Kelowna is also in the process of reporting on our tangible
assets.  However, at this point we've been told that they don't want any
information on trees or other living assets - this might be coming
later, but in the mean time they only want our "grey infrastructure".
 
We have a complete inventory of all of our "planted" trees and the
inventory includes appraised values, as per the ISA appraisal "trunk
formula".  You can also come up with an estimated value of your tree
resource using sampling protocols, as you are probably aware.  So we are
working on the premise that our trees are capital assets that appreciate
over time, but we don't know if this will be accepted by PSAB.
 
I would also be very interested to learn what you, and other
municipalities are doing.  I don't think the accountants really know how
to handle this.  We as municipal arborists, should probably be making
recommendations to the PSAB on the appropriate way to track these
assets.  Perhaps through CANUFNET we can get a group together to come up
with a strategy.  
 
Ian Wilson, RPF, Certified Arborist
Urban Forestry Supervisor
City of Kelowna
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services
1359 KLO road,
Kelowna, BC  V1W 3N8
iwilson at kelowna.ca
Phone: (250) 469-8842
Fax:  (250) 862-3335
 
 
 
 

	-----Original Message-----
	From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net
[mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net] On Behalf Of Friesen, Russell
	Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 3:41 PM
	To: Canadian Urban Forest Network
	Subject: [CANUFNET] Tangible Capital Asset Registry - Reporting
Trees andUrban Forest Assets
	
	
	Tangible Capital Asset Registries are topic that has great
implications for municipal forestry operations across the country, but I
am pretty sure most CANUFNET subscribers have probably never even heard
of it.  Around 2005, the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB)
recommended that governments including municipalities report "Tangible
Capital Assets" (TCA) on their balance sheets. In Alberta, this
recommendation became law and is now a legislative requirement
commencing Jan. 1 2009. The Province of Ontario also appears to have
similar requirements, and many municipalities in that jurisdiction are
well on their way to reporting TCA. 
	  
	Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a standard practice
or consensus on how to report trees.  The advice given by the PSAB isn't
specific and opinion from other sources is contradictory, ranging from
don't report the value of trees, to report the value of trees that were
planted with a purpose (like visual screening), to report the value
trees as if they were converted to pulp wood.
	 
	Most municipalities involved in building TCA registries have
hired consultants to aid with the developing the reporting process. In
some cases the same consultants have been hired by several
municipalities, but for ethical reasons the consultants can't share what
one municipality is doing with another municipality.  All this results
in a dearth of guidance and information about how to report trees and
the urban forest in a Tangible Capital Asset Registry.  
	 
	Therefore, I think that it is important for municipal foresters
to share with each other what they know about TCA registries, what their
TCA will report, how their reporting policy is worded and how they are
going to track, collect and manage their asset reporting in subsequent
years. . 
	 
	So now for my questions. 
	 
	Which other municipalities are in the process of building their
TCA?
	How are you planning on reporting trees? 
	Have you tried to make the case that tree appreciate in value
rather than depreciate? ... and how did that go?    
	Are you using historic costs of acquisition (planting) for your
starting point and depreciating from there? 
	Are you reporting individual trees or lumping trees into a
general average land improvement value?  
	What is your useful lifespan for a tree? 
	How are you taking into account vintages?    
	And my final question, does anybody - anywhere, understand this?

	 
	Thank You 
	Russell Friesen
	Urban Forestry Coordinator 
	City of Calgary Parks  
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 

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