Planting Priorities

With so much canopy cover to grow in a such a short timeline, where do we start? How do we determine where to plant? Planting projects use a number of criteria to determine where trees are planted first. We've list several of the criteria below:

• Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, Urban Forest Policy Element
• Street and freeway rights-of-ways, especially highly visible locations such as business districts and major corridors
• Parks, schools and other publicly owned property when and where appropriate
• Demonstration projects in diverse areas representative of the range of land use and development patterns in the City
• Within the Flett or Leach watersheds
• Low canopy cover areas with high residential density and lower incomes

Tree planting is generally done throughout out the City each year, in every neighborhood district to ensure resource equity; however, the highest priority planting projects are areas with low canopy cover, such as those in the map to the right.

In 2013, Ben Wells, then a student with University of Washington Tacoma working on a GIS certificate, took our canopy cover data and further analyzed the data in addition to Tacoma's residential density and 2010 demographic data.

2012-2013 Planting Projects

See the map below for the big picture view of this year's planting projects and our Open  Space properties. 

South Tyler Street Project

This project includes street tree planting, ornamental landscaping at three of the corners, removal of invasive species and reforestation of the slopes at South 56th Street from Tyler to Cheyenne and South Tyler Street from South 52nd to South 66th Street.

Trees

Quanity

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