At Seattle’s Arbor Day celebration a few weeks ago, the City celebrated the 30th anniversary of being a Tree City USA. Cities receive a Tree City USA designation for meeting high standards on tree care. Mayor Murray was on hand to reaffirm that Seattle is committed to maintaining and growing our urban forest and ensuring that everyone enjoys the benefits.
Mayor Murray also announced two innovative tree planting projects to help improve air quality and green infrastructure gaps in Georgetown. The first project is a pavement removal and tree planting of three blocks of street trees along Corson Avenue. This pilot project came together very quickly with significant contributions from Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Public Utilities and Office of Sustainability & Environment staff.
Additionally, Seattle’s urban forestry team worked with Cedar Grove to pull together a project that will amend poor soils and plant street trees along E Marginal Way to help buffer residential and industrial areas. Cedar Grove will donate 100 cubic yards of compost for the E Marginal Way pilot and has been a great partner in this effort. With a facility in Georgetown, Cedar Grove recycles some 45,000 tons of Seattle’s organic waste annually. Seattle’s food and yard waste will soon be nurturing trees and helping to clean the air in in Georgetown, creating a closed loop system.
In the next month, Seattle reLeaf’s Trees for Neighborhoods project will be planting 1,000 trees with Seattle residents around their homes. The Seattle Department of Transportation will be planting trees in Georgetown, Rainier Beach, Roxhill, and Arbor Heights. Seattle City Light will be planting in Beacon Hill. And Seattle Parks and Recreation will be hosting the annual Green Seattle Day, in which volunteers are mobilized to remove invasive species and plant new trees in the natural areas of our parks.
Volunteering for Green Seattle Day is a great way to keep the Arbor Day spirit throughout the fall. There is still time to sign up!