November songs + how much is a tree really worth?

Last week I wondered how much more it would cost to save those big trees in Chicago's Bryant park. I don't know that for sure, but I can take a guess...

There will be lots of assumptions here, but, here's what I know:

Last year we priced a green roof job in Toronto where the building owners wanted 18-20 foot maple trees. Each root ball would probably weigh 4500 lbs. or so. (I am going to assume the cost of trees in Chicago is roughly equivalent to Toronto, a city basically the same size.) The cost to install probably 10 of those trees? Maybe $30,000 dollars. Throw in the cost of the crane to lift the trees, take them somewhere else...and this is where we would run into trouble. What would you do with those trees while all the rest of the foliage and dirt was removed, a new deck was constructed and layers of the green roof put on? How long would that project take? Months?
It would require a great deal of coordination, but I am guessing to temporarily house 10 of these trees in an alternate location, care for them and eventually put them back, one is looking at $100,000 easily.
So the next question to ask is "How much is a tree worth?" The answer hinges on who you ask. A developer might have a different answer than a parks commissioner. And I guess that's why some can justify cutting down trees and replacing them, as opposed to saving them and relocating.

-Montreal is in the news this week. At McGill University they installed a permaculture garden outside of their Post Graduate Student Society. Across the city, a supergroup comprised of orgs with health, food-security and environmental mandates needs 2,000 more signatures to put the development of urban agriculture in the lap of the city's executive committee. The Groupe de travail en agriculture urbaine started kick of their quest in August, the November 8 deadline is looming...help them get there!

-I posted the list for the October songs a little too late last month, it should really be done in the beginning of the month so that you can enjoy them all month long, no?

Morissey -November Spawned a Monster
Gorillaz -November Has Come by
Mr. November -The National