In addition to the extensive environmental and economic benefits, urban trees provide numerous social and cultural co-benefits. Aesthetic improvement, health benefits, and educational opportunities are only a few of the positive effects urban and suburban tree planting can have on a community.

Trees add aesthetic improvement, beautifying communities and creating scenic greenspaces. Tree lined streets add character to neighborhoods, visually enhancing the environment. They also are known to have immediate and lasting physical and psychological health benefits. While improving air quality and thereby reducing respiratory illnesses, trees have also have been shown to relax and reduce stress in people who live in close proximity to them. In addition, some studies have even demonstrated that recovery times for patients in hospitals with a view of trees out their windows was dramatically shorter than it was for those with no view of trees. (Urlich, R.S. "Visual landscapes and psychological well being: An ecological perspective". Landscape Research, 4:17-23. 1979)

In addition to having an overall physical healing and mood improving effect, trees have been credited with reducing aggression and violence in cities and encouraging positive social behavior. Crime reduction can be a major benefit of trees planted in urban neighborhoods. (Sullivan and Kuo, "Trees, aggression, and violence in the home" 7th national urban forest conference, 1993)
Trees reduce the effects of noise pollution by reflecting and absorbing sound, and disguise other noise with the sound of their movement in the wind. They have been shown to be effective barriers to highway noise. (Cook and Van Haverbeke, "Suburban noise control with plant materials and solid barriers" Conference on Metropolitan Physical Environment, US Forest Service General Technical Report N-25:229-233.1977) Tree-lined streets and boulevards can also have the added benefit of traffic slowing.

Trees in urban and suburban areas create potential habitat for birds and other wildlife in otherwise unlikely areas, and as a result also enhance the lives of people around them, who may enjoy observing and appreciating local wildlife. Greenspaces and tree plantings not only increase the aesthetic value of a common park or public space, but offer recreational enjoyment and appreciation from backyards to urban parks. Trees offer an immediate connection to nature within an urban area. People also generally appreciate more wooded recreational sites over open space with fewer trees. (Dwyer, Schroeder, Louviere and Anderson, "Urbanites willing to pay for trees and forests in recreational areas" Journal of Arboriculture. 15 (10): 247-252, 1989)

The intrinsic value of trees and the environments they improve is an often overlooked aspect of urban and suburban forestry. Trees evoke a sense of place for the people who live among them by shaping and defining the landscape. Trees also connect the present to the past, with many older trees serving as landmarks, historical markers, or living memorials to others.

Perhaps most importantly, urban and suburban tree planting offer an opportunity for education and empowerment among community members. Recognizing the multiple social, environmental and economic benefits presented by trees, communities have the opportunity to educate themselves and their children about these benefits and the importance of urban forestry. City planting programs like the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program offer citizens the opportunity to take action with regards to urban forestry with a program where community members apply for street trees to be planted and, when requests are granted, commit to planting and caring for the trees themselves.