Leading by Example and Planting to Grow Our Urban Forest
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.
Landfill Entrance
This project added a mixture of evergreen and deciduous trees to the landfill entrance to fill in between existing maple trees.
South 38th Cloverleaf and Triangle
This project added trees around existing trees to the triangle and cloverleaf at South 38th and South Union Streets. Native oaks were used with shade tree and evergreens.
Tacoma Mall Medians
This project added trees to the two medians before the Tacoma Mall entrance on South Steele Street.
Eastside Medians
This project added trees to the medians on Portland Ave from Puyallup Avenue to East Wright Avenue using mostly short flowering ornamental trees to not interfere with the median lighting.
Tacoma Dome Frontage
This project added trees to the frontage road between I-5 and the Tacoma Dome, East Wiley Avenue between East L and East D Street. Trees were placed to maintain an open view of the Dome.
Yakima Cloverleaf
This project added new trees to the Yakima Avenue cloverleaf at South 28th Street to fill in around the trees planted in 2009.
Sprague Entryway
This project added trees and rain gardens to the west side of Sprague for beautification, screening and canopy cover purposes.
View Point Park/Julia's Gulch
This project added large native trees in the lawn area between View Point Park and Julia's Gulch.
Schuster Turnaround
This project added evergreens to the turnaround on Schuster Parkway to fill in around the maples planted in 2009.
Pearl Street Medians
This project replaced the 11 trees removed and filled in around remaining trees on Pearl Street between North 14th Street and North 36th Street.
War Memorial Park
This project replaced several trees that were removed last year and added more to line the park. The park is located between SR 16, Jackson and 6th Avenue.
Northbound I-5 and South 38th Street cloverleaf
This project was a partnership with WSDOT to plant trees in their right-of-way. Native oaks were planted to help recreate the prairie habitat that used to be what is now southern Tacoma.