More than 150 years ago, our cities were built from old growth forests.

Today, the urban forests of Pierce County have some of the lowest tree canopy coverage in Western Washington.

Thanks to a growing number of tree advocates in our neighborhoods and governments, we have more tree protections than ever before and residents are excited about what trees can do for the future of their communities. But we stand at a crossroads: we are a rapidly growing region contending with climate change.

It is time to grow our love of trees into a movement that sustains our region’s communities through the challenges of the 21st century.

Join us to learn about the challenges we face and the opportunities we can seize with your support!

7PM

Welcome:

Keynote:

Jeffrey Thomas, Muckleshoot Tribe

Dr. Lowell Wyse, Executive Director

8PM

CHEERS TO TREES GATHERING

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Buy your ticket!

Jeffery Thomas

Jeffrey is a lifelong Muckleshoot tribal elder who descends from the Wasco, Yakama and Nez Perce tribes, too. He is president of the Tahoma Indian Center Board of Directors, and has been a cross-cultural ambassador since first performing with the Seattle All-American Indian Dancers at 6 years old. Jeffrey’s lifetime of cultural ties to salmon resources led him to becoming a local fisheries biologist in 1983. He started with the Point No Point Treaty Council, and worked for other tribal fisheries organizations after that, until becoming the director of the Puyallup Tribal Timber, Fish & Wildlife Program (August 1989), where he has been implementing the 1987 Washington State Timber/Fish/Wildlife Agreement for the Puyallup tribal community ever since.

Lowell Wyse

Lowell has served as Executive Director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation since 2021. He comes from a long line of teachers and land stewards, and is a descendant of both Swiss-German Mennonite farmers, who moved to Ohio’s Maumee Watershed seeking religious freedom, and the Ojibwe people, who continue to steward the lands and waters around Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. He grew up on his family’s farm in Michigan, and now lives and works in downtown Tacoma and volunteers on the Sustainable Tacoma Commission. The values of community, justice, stewardship, resilience, storytelling, and placemaking motivate his commitment to fulfilling the Tacoma Tree Foundation’s mission as a community-based organization that works to grow a greener, more equitable, and resilient urban area.

Join the Movement

About Milgard Hall

We are grateful for our partners at UW-T’s Office of Community Partnerships who generously donated the space for this event. Adjacent to the lecture hall where the event will take place is a stunning gallery that is part of the microforest project currently being developed by a team of University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) students, professors, and community partners. The goal is to grow a microfest on the northeast corner of South 17th Street and Commerce Street.

At UWT, a microforest is a promising afforestation method suited to urban contexts because these can be planted in small and irregular plots of public land that are otherwise unsuitable for other types of development. This managed landscape will serve as a public and educational space. It will help center and, in some cases, recover the presence and history of the people and cultures that have dwelled and worked in this place, including native and Indigenous people and those who came to Tacoma to work in the timber industry.