Tag Archives: Seattle Urban Forest

Urge SDOT to Protect and Increase Tree Canopy in their Transportation Plan Update

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Urge SDOT to Protect and Increase Tree Canopy in their Transportation Plan Update –

Comments end  Wed. August 31st

 

Comments are needed to urge support for protecting and increasing tree canopy in Seattle’s Transportation Plan update. The Transportation Plan update is being done in tandem with Seattle updating it’s One Seattle Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is updated every 10 years to assist Seattle in planning for its growth in people, jobs, and housing over the next 20 years. The Transportation Plan guides the transportation component of the One Seattle Plan update.The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) notes that “Our transportation system is more than just roads. It includes sidewalks, bridges, stairways, transit, paths and trails, bike lanes, crosswalks, public spaces like street cafes and benches, and much more. The transportation system is how everyone moves around the city, connecting us to places and opportunities. But COVID-19, climate change, and rapid population growth make it hard to keep this system running smoothly. That’s why we want to create a sustainable system that works now and in the future.“Missing from their discussion is the role of Seattle’s trees and urban forest in our transportation system. Land devoted to transportation in Seattle is some 23% of the city’s area. It contributes about 22% of the city’s tree canopy. SDOT is responsible for maintaining and growing these trees. Hard pavement like concrete and asphalt in roads and sidewalks absorb heat and create heat domes and heat island impacts that. As seen last year, excessive heat can be deadly. Trees are an important climate resiliency and mitigation factor in reducing heat island impacts by shading streets and sidewalks. Trees transpiring water also create cooling effects. Trees were shown to create as much as a 25-degree Fahrenheit temperature difference in a recent county wide study done by Seattle and King County.   Please comment on the Transportation Plan, noting that the trees and urban forest under SDOT’s oversight and responsibility are an important part of Seattle’s transportation system.Go to SDOT’s Seattle Transportation Plan Online Engagement HUB and submit your comments. You can also take their survey.You can also send an e-mail  directly to  STP@Seattle.gov with your comments.  Your response is due by the end of the day this Wednesday August 31st.Some examples of issues regarding trees to comment on:

Comments are needed to urge support for protecting and increasing tree canopy inSeattle’s Transportation Plan update. The Transportation Planupdate is being done in tandem with Seattle updating it’s One Seattle Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is updated every 10 years to assist Seattle in planning for its growth in people, jobs, and housing over the next 20 years. The Transportation Plan guides the transportation component of the One Seattle Plan update.The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) notes that “Our transportation system is more than just roads. It includes sidewalks, bridges, stairways, transit, paths and trails, bike lanes, crosswalks, public spaces like street cafes and benches, and much more. The transportation system is how everyone moves around the city, connecting us to places and opportunities. But COVID-19, climate change, and rapid population growth make it hard to keep this system running smoothly. That’s why we want to create a sustainable system that works now and in the future.“Missing from their discussion is the role of Seattle’s trees and urban forest in our transportation system. Land devoted to transportation in Seattle is some 23% of the city’s area. It contributes about 22% of the city’s tree canopy. SDOT is responsible for maintaining and growing these trees. Hard pavement like concrete and asphalt in roads and sidewalks absorb heat and create heat domes and heat island impacts that. As seen last year, excessive heat can be deadly. Trees are an important climate resiliency and mitigation factor in reducing heat island impacts by shading streets and sidewalks. Trees transpiring water also create cooling effects. Trees were shown to create as much as a 25-degree Fahrenheit temperature difference in a recent county wide study done by Seattle and King County.   Please comment on the Transportation Plan, noting that the trees and urban forest under SDOT’s oversight and responsibility are an important part of Seattle’s transportation system.Go to SDOT’sSeattle Transportation Plan Online Engagement HUB and submit your comments. You can also take their survey.You can also send an e-mail  directly to  STP@Seattle.gov with your comments.  Your response is due by the end of the day this Wednesday August 31st.Some examples of issues regarding trees to comment on:

    • More trees planted along streets and sidewalks will reduce urban heat island impacts
    • Environmental equity and justice require SDOT to plant and maintain more trees in low canopy areas.
    • SDOT needs to give priority to protecting existing trees and watering new trees to ensure their survival
    • Trees are needed along streets for shade to encourage people walking and help reduce crime.
    • Trees are important for both physical and mental health
    • Big trees can and need to be planted for more shade on the street side where there are no power lines
    • Trees along busy streets will help slow traffic and increase safety for pedestrians
    • More trees along streets in shopping areas and urban villages will encourage people to shop locally and help local businesses thrive
    • Trees planted along streets in industrial areas are needed to reduce pollution and stormwater runoff
    • Consider using more alternative sidewalk repair techniques s like flexible rubber and raised sidewalks to deal with tree roots would save more existing trees
    • Trees planted around transit stops would provide shade for people waiting for buses.
    • Trees planted along streets where kids walk to school make streets safer
    • Creating a street in both north and south Seattle planted with different recommended street trees for people to see will help people choose trees
    • Planting more trees along greenways and bike lanes to reduce heat impacts would increase people using them
    • Prepare a plan and goal to plant more trees in the right of way for climate resiliency
    • Trees help reduce stormwater and pollution runoff.
    • Trees help clean the air of pollution

TreePAC and Seattle Win Master Builders Appeal!

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TreePAC and Seattle Win Hearing Examiner Appeal By Master Builders opposing updating Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance

TreePAC joined forces with Seattle to stop what could have been a one to two year added delay in updating Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance. TreePAC  hired respected environmental Attorney Claudia Newman of Bricklin and Newman to intervene in the Hearing Examiner Appeal by the Master Builders.

In a strongly worded decision, the Seattle Hearing Examiner denied the appeal by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties from a Determination of Non-Significance  issued by the Seattle Department of Constructions and Inspections (SDCI). The appeal was regarding the potential environmental impacts of a draft update by SDCI of Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance.The decision by Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil stated, “The Director’s decision to issue a Determination of Non significance for the proposed ordinance is not clearly erroneous and is AFFIRMED and the Appellants’ appeal is DENIED..”The Hearing Examiner did not equivocate but soundly dismissed the MBAKS arguments and witnesses’ statements as speculation and not backed up by any actual data.Seattle  Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil stated “The record indicates that in developing the proposal, the Department considered the City’s goals and policies and developed a set of recommendations that struck a balance between the City’s housing goals related to housing and future development patterns and the City’s goals to maintain a healthy urban forest that provides sizable tree canopy coverage.”You can read the full Hearing Examiner’s decision and detailed response here.

Having an experienced expert Attorney was critical in our winning this appeal. Fighting the Master Builders  unfortunately lasted longer and cost more than planned as they dragged the hearing process out. The decision by the Hearing Examiner strongly supported the city in protecting Seattle’s trees and gives us momentum to get the tree Protection Ordinance updated in the coming months. 

TreePAC needs your help to pay our additional  legal bills for this successful effort as well as our continuing campaigns to update Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance.

  Please send a contribution today to help us retire our debt.  We still have work to do to get the ordinance update passed by the City Council. Thanks.

 

Statement by Josh Morris of Seattle Audubon on NPI/Tree PAC Tree Protection Poll

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Statement: July 2021 Tree Protection Polling Results by Josh Morris of Seattle Audubon

Sept. 15, 2021 

Seattle Audubon is a 105-year-old environmental nonprofit that advocates and organizes for cites where people and birds thrive. Since neither people nor birds can thrive without a healthy, growing, and well-distributed urban forest, protecting Seattle’s trees is important to realizing our mission.  

Trees, especially big mature trees, are icons of the Pacific Northwest. Many people love our trees and want to protect them at a greater level than we currently do. We see that clearly from the overwhelming support for improved tree protection, planting, and funding among participants in Northwest Progressive Institute’s July 2021 poll. 

The results show more than 80% of respondents in support of maximizing tree retention during planning and development, and in support of focusing urban forestry investments in low-income and historically redlined neighborhoods. The first is needed to slow the threat of indiscriminate tree loss, and the latter is needed to address a glaring environmental injustice.  

These results come as we increasingly recognize trees as important community assets whose benefits extend well beyond the parcels in which they are rooted. They promote good health and well-being. They bring bird song into our neighborhoods. They keep us cool in the heat and help prevent flooding. Trees are essential. And they are threatened in great numbers across Seattle from weak policy and weaker action.  

Despite more than a decade of promises, Seattle leaders have failed to improve tree protections. Seattle can densify, prevent sprawl, protect more trees, and plant more new ones. We just have to plan for it. Washington, D.C., for example, continues to increase both population density and tree canopy cover through strong tree protections, dedicated funding, and coordinated urban forestry management. We can learn for their example. We can and should do better by our urban forest and for the communities, present and future, that depend on it. 

Seattle Audubon hopes these poll results encourage City leaders to act and hold each other accountable for adopting improved tree protections without further delay. 

 Please send questions to Joshua Morris, urban conservation manager: joshm@seattleaudubon.org 

 

Please support following items in the city budget that support protecting trees

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Tree PAC urged the Seattle City Council to fund and enact the following item in the 2021. The first 4 items were adopted and the last two unfortunately were not added to the final budget adopted budget.

E-mail sent to Mayor and City Council.

Please support the following items in the city budget that support protecting trees

Tree PAC supports these budget items.

  • SLI – MO-001-A-002 – Requests that the executive recommends strategies for consolidating urban forestry functions
  • CBA – OSE- 002-A-003 – Add $132,000 to OSE for the Green New Deal Advisor Position
  • CBA – OSE-004-A-003 – Add $140,000 to the Climate Advisory Position
  • SLI – SPU-002-A-003 – request SPU to explore an expansion of the Tree Ambassador program

Tree PAC urges you add these 2 items to the budget.

  • CBA – SDCI-002-A-001- Add 1 FTE arborist and 1 FTE Housing and Zoning inspector to SDCI and $275,237 General Fund to fund the positions to improve enforcement of tree regulations
  • CBA –  SDCI-011-A-001 – Provisio $758,563 be withheld from SDCI until they present an updated Tree Protection Ordinance to the Council by the end of Sept 2021

Steve Zemke

Chair – Tree PAC

stevezemke@TreePAC.org