In this walk, Steven Quick will take us through and around McKinley Park to appreciate and discuss trees and their water-related benefits. Trees can help reduce urban temperatures by evaporating water and shading the area around it, but they also help reduce stormwater flooding and pollution. Some trees, however, might be better at this than others – can you guess which one of our native trees moves the most water on average? What about the tree that moves the most water in our wettest month? The trees will be waking up from their winter slumber just in time to give us all the answers!

Meet at the park where Upper Park Street, 31st St, and I Street [Map]

Steven Quick is a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Science program at Evergreen State College. Since 2016, Steven has been working on urban and remote land conservation and restoration projects aimed at restoring salmon populations across the state. His interests in forests and ecosystem services have led to his current work investigating trees as stormwater solutions and improving urban forestry research methods. He currently works as a research assistant for the Fischer Lab of Plant and Community Ecology at Evergreen, and a data management technician for Mount Saint Helens Institute.