Why can't we insure trees?

为何我们不能为树木投保?

The Indicator from Planet Money

2025-07-07

9 分钟
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In the U.S., we insure most everything we sell. So why not trees? Today on the show why trees aren't insured like other crops, and what it would take to get that insurance with extreme weather events on the rise. Related episodes: When insurers can't get insurance (Apple / Spotify) For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Tyler Jones. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • NPR. This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

  • I'm Waylon Wong.

  • And here with me is Ellie Katz from Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan.

  • Hello, Ellie.

  • Hi, Waylon.

  • Good to be here.

  • Great to have you.

  • And Ellie, you are in northern Michigan,

  • which I remember had a really bad ice storm earlier this spring.

  • Yeah, it was like the worst ice storm we've had since 1922.

  • There were power lines coming down, trees coming down.

  • It was pretty bad.

  • I remember just the scale of it was wild.

  • Over a million acres of forest land were damaged.

  • The pictures look like the tops of all the trees just got sheared off.

  • They look like matchsticks.

  • It's pretty crazy.

  • And that is in a really heavily forested part of the state.

  • And some people there rely on those trees for their livelihood.

  • I went to talk with someone like that.