When doing our tree equity work, we often place the emphasis on what streets are missing: trees and their many benefits. We make the case for trees mostly by highlighting the troubling aspects of cities, such as pollution, heat, crime, car speed, flooding, redlining. From this perspective, trees offer partial solutions to a set of problems. 

Yet trees and cities are similar, too. Trees and cities both take root thanks to a web of relationships. As is now widely known, an underground fungal network allows trees to share resources, know their neighbors, and warn each other about potential harm. Perhaps because city life is so common (more than half the world lives in urban areas) and can be difficult, we forget that, although the city is now understood as a place, it was first understood as a web of neighbors committed to sharing resources and rights. 

At their worst, city streets are the opposite: sites of constitutional and human rights violations. We are currently witnessing such violations at a terrifying scale, while many of our neighbors experience them daily. But we are also witnessing how people across the country are responding by returning to the roots of city life at its best. This is the place our organization is committed to cultivating. Our new Strategic Plan states our commitment to growing environmental stewardship through mutual caring, by fostering safe, welcoming, and supportive communities alongside people of all abilities, ages, appearances, backgrounds, cultures, genders, and lifestyles. Today we underscore this commitment to everyone who makes our work possible and everyone we work for: tree recipients, program attendees, volunteers, donors, partners, and every neighbor with whom we share the trees, the mountain, and the water.

SafeTREE Routes to School

On February 21st, we launched the pilot event of a grant-funded tree planting project in partnership with the City of Tacoma, SafeTREE Routes to School. This project focuses on improving walking routes to schools in select neighborhoods. By planting trees along designated walking routes, the project aims to increase tree canopy near schools, support neighborhood safety, and create healthier, cooler places for students and families to walk, bike, and roll to school and around their neighborhoods. With the help of 42 volunteers, a Northwest Youth Corps crew, and an EcoMovers crew, 88 trees were planted in the public right-of-way adjacent to residential properties, along suggested walking routes. Check out the website to learn more about this multi-year planting program, headed to South Tacoma this fall. 

Funding for this project provided by the City of Tacoma and the USDA Forest Service, Urban and Community Forestry Program in partnership with State of Washington Department of Natural Resources, Urban and Community Forestry Program.

AMARA Planting

On February 14th, the Tacoma Tree Foundation supported Woods of Memory, a planting project created to honor Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). Washington State has one of the highest numbers of MMIWG. By planting trees in their memory, the project calls attention to the atrocity of devaluing the lives of women lost to violence, who are often Indigenous, black or brown, or transgender. These trees will serve as living reminders that our loved ones are not forgotten, and that their absence calls us to action. We gathered at the Amara farm in Midland with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ Community Domestic Violence Advocacy Program, Woods of Memory, and community members to plant more than a dozen trees. This date is of significance in the MMIWG movement, as a day when communities come together to speak names and renew commitments to justice and prevention. We’re honored to support them and show up as a trusted community organization. In the words of our Puyallup Tribe friends, haʔł kʷ(i) adsəslabcəbut – Watch Over Yourself Well.

We’re Moving!

Tacoma Tree Foundation (TTF) alongside Tacoma Public Library (TPL) is excited to announce that we have become the newest partner in the Community Hub. Located on the second floor of downtown Tacoma’s Main Library, the Community Hub is an innovative ecosystem where nonprofit organizations offer free or low-cost programs and resources in exchange for below market-rate rent. Joining the Community Hub at Tacoma Public Library gives us a unique opportunity to engage with residents in a central, accessible space, and to grow new relationships with our Community Hub partners. We can’t wait!

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

PINTS FOR PINES

Spruce up and join Tacoma Tree Foundation at two Beer Week events! 

• First, help us repeat last year’s hopping night at Peaks and Pints for our second annual beer week fundraiser. Join us on Tuesday 3/3 from 5-8pm, and raise a glass for local brews, trees, and community! Proceeds from all draft pours go to supporting tree equity in Greater Tacoma. We hope to see you there!

• Then, nerd out with TTF staff at this month’s Green Drinks on Thursday 3/5 from 6-8PM at E9 Taproom (the one on Fawcett!). Join us for a couple hours of advocacy, urban forestry, sustainability, climate change, related topics, and as always, vibrant community-building!

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