Our Top Moments from 2022
As 2022 comes to a close, we are reflecting on some of the awesome things we were able to do this year like distribute 2,276 trees with the help of 154 volunteers! This is the most we have ever done and we are looking to grow even more in the next year. If you want to help us plant more trees, run educational programs about trees, and build community around trees then consider helping fund these programs in the next year or getting some of our awesome merch! For now though, check out a little bit about what we’ve been up to and some of our top moments from this year.
Branch Out
On Veterans' Day this year, Tacoma Tree Foundation, in partnership with the City of Tacoma and Pierce Conservation District, gave away 493 free trees to the Tacoma community! Our 9 teams of volunteers even planted 101 of those trees for 34 homeowners who requested help. Our Branch Out event was the largest tree share in Tacoma history! Photo courtesy of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs.
Pop-up Forest at the Tacoma Mall
We were able to bring in soil, mulch, and trees to make this unique pop-up forest in the Tacoma Mall last year in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Washington and the City of Tacoma. The most popular comment we got was the lovely smell the trees brought, which is definitely an underrated benefit of trees. This neighborhood has one of the lowest tree canopies in the entire city so we were so excited to be able to bring a bit of green in and give away dozens of trees for people to take home while we were at it! This lovely timelapse is filmed by Hannah Letinich.
Potting Up Trees at NW Trek
At the start of the summer, we potted up hundreds upon hundreds of trees at Northwest Trek with Washington Conservation Corps to prepare for the tree planting and tree giveaway season and are happy to say it paid off as we got 2,276 trees in the ground this year! Take a look at how it went with a tour from our director, Lowell!
Tree Planting at Swan Creek
This is one of our sweetest photos from the last year. It is a reminder that the trees we plant today will grow in to mature trees for many generations to enjoy.
This was taken at a Swan Creek tree planting where we were able to plant 100 western redcedars as a part of a research study with Washington State University and Forest Health Watch. Western redcedars are an important part of the pacific northwest and coast salish culture, we hope that with this study, we will learn more about how to help them thrive with the changing climate. Photo taken by our staff, Luna Malia Azzouni.
Tacoma Climate Leadership Cohort
We are so proud of our first ever Tacoma Climate Leadership Cohort participants! Back in November, they had a packed weekend where they learned about local climate activism with speakers from City of Tacoma Government, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma Housing for All, Downtown: On the Go!, Tacoma Sustainability, and more. Participants are now advocating for policy changes, starting community gardens, doing community outreach, and are helping their neighbors green their homes!
Exploring nature with families
Our tree walks are some of our more peaceful programs, this one is a family oriented one we took deep in Point Defiance’s Native Plant Garden. We took at look at what native plants grew together and we were lucky enough to find some hemlock, sword fern, and rhododendron taking up space in different levels of the forest. This is apart of our Nature Explorers program where we learned about the different kinds of plants and animals that live in this part of the world in person and on our website natureexplorers253.com Learning about local nature is such an important part of growing up, so we are happy to have kids involved in our programs! Plus if you haven’t yet check out our latest online lesson about plant defenses and take our Tree Personality Test!
Green Blocks: Tacoma Mall
One accomplishment we are grateful for this year is that we planted 50 trees and distributed another 80 for our Green Blocks: Tacoma Mall program! Teams of volunteers helped deliver and plant trees outside community members homes. The Tacoma Mall neighborhood has one of the lowest tree canopies in the city so we were excited when residents invited us in. In 2023, we are coming to Parkland so stay tuned for info on how to get free trees planted and delivered at your home!
Wishing Trees
We were so grateful to have been able to participate in Teruko Nimura’s special wishing tree ceremony. Students at Madison elementary were able to tie their wishes for the future to a tree in a symbol of hope, resilience, and compassion. Then to finish it off we had a great time planting a tree with the students at their school and having families take one home to grow together!
Green Tacoma Day
We rolled up to the Asia Pacific Cultural Center earlier this year with this truck absolutely stuffed to the brim with trees and the community showed up and took home almost ALL of these trees, we love to see it! This is one of our many community tree shares this year but this one was especially memorable.
Appreciating our Trees
While it has been a busy year, one of the best moments was simply sitting under a tree, and enjoying the beauty, peace, and fresh air they bring to us in Tacoma. It is a reminder of why we do this work, so that others may enjoy that same sense of calm that trees can bring us. Our city still has a lot of work to do but we are so grateful for the trees that we do have, that give us clean air everyday and for the work that we have accomplished thus far. We are hoping for 2023 to be a big one!
Looking to the future
We were invited to speak at the Partners for Community Forestry this year with American Forests, the theme of the conference was "Be Bold!" We heard presentations from the National Forest Service about an influx of funding that has been approved for urban forestry over the next eight years as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The $1.5 BILLION that has been allocated will be a game-changer for organizations like TTF that are working to meet the growing demand for trees in high-need areas. Paired with additional millions announced by Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz, and the funding future is very bright for the next decade of tree planting in Tacoma! That being said, we want to make 2023 the best year yet and still need your support to do that. Make a donation to help us keep greening Tacoma in the new year! Photo courtesy of Hannah Letinich.
