Two proposed projects within a mile of each other, in Fircrest and South Tacoma, highlight how different city policies are affecting tree coverage and quality of life in neighboring communities.

At Tacoma Tree Foundation, we believe that community and trees grow together. South Tacoma will be a neighborhood of focus for us in 2022–2023 thanks to a unique collaboration known as G.R.I.T.: Greening Research in Tacoma.

Tacoma Tree Foundation is getting a boost in the new year thanks to the Puyallup Watershed Initiative (PWI).

On a rainy Monday in October, I loaded an Oregon white oak seedling into the back of my car and headed down the road from Tacoma to Portland. It’s not a host gift I would give to just anyone, but the Garry oak prairies form a biological connection across Cascadia, and I did not want to show up at Friends of Trees empty-handed!

Some good stories start in the middle.
This one starts on a rainy day in February 2019, when I first met Sarah Low in a Tacoma coffee shop. Sarah had recently created the Tacoma Tree Foundation, and I was dying to know more.

Walking through the forest at Point Defiance Park, you experience the forest around you as a cohesive system made up of many individual parts. Firs, cedars, madrones, maples, huckleberries, ferns, lichens, mosses, and fungi all exist in chaotic harmony, perfectly suited to the part they play in the health and well-being of the forest. Together, it all works. Together, it’s beautiful.

A recent study by the American Forests Foundation calculated that to maintain the current levels of urban forest, each urban resident needs to plant approximately 7 trees in their lifetime. To grow our urban forests, that number grows to about 11 trees per person. But planting trees is only part of the story--a big part of maintaining and growing canopy coverage is actually preserving the trees we already have.

Last month Tacoma (and the entire PNW) felt first-hand how climate change is already affecting us and changing the seasons as we know them. Summers have been getting drier, hotter, and more uncomfortable—and will continue to do so. But if your house was shaded by mature trees, you were probably a little less hot than most of us.

You might be tired of hearing about what a long and challenging year it has been, but it has been a long and challenging year. We still need to help each other out. Thankfully, helping others also helps you.

If we could nominate an official tree for Cascadia, we’d put down Douglas fir in a heartbeat. To us, Douglas-firs are synonymous with the Pacific Northwest. They’re rugged, beautiful, and durable--and have been useful companions to the inhabitants of the PNW for thousands of years.

As any quick internet search will tell you, pruning is both an art and a science. Whole courses and workshops are taught on pruning. There are a lot of fine details on proper pruning, with different techniques being taught for different kinds of trees. We’re not here to get that complicated. Most of us don’t need to be pruning pros in order to take care of our trees properly. But there is one critical thing everyone needs to know: topping trees is bad.

If you’re reading this--give yourself a big hug! We’ve almost made it through 2020, and that’s something to celebrate. This was one long, wild year filled with unexpected challenges and strange glimmering moments of joy. For us at Tacoma Tree Foundation, this year pressed us to stretch our creativity, in order to keep planting trees, building community, and advocating for a greener, healthier, and more connected Tacoma.

Over and over again we talk about what a wild, unexpected, and insanely long year it’s been. And over and over again, we keep trying to hold ourselves to impossible standards of keeping it all together and doing everything well. How many of us have actually taken a moment to pause, think, and reflect on current circumstances? How many of us have cut ourselves even an inch of slack, admitting that not everything can always go well?

Halloween is different this year; for one, it feels much more necessary to have a break from everyday life. It’s been an escape to watch scary movies and put on spooky soundtracks, a diversion from the uncertainty and chaos that this year has brought. It’s been almost a delight to worry for an hour about witches or curses or being lost in the woods. There’s been something cathartic about dealing with a known terror, versus the uncertainty and ambiguity of the present moment.

We are in the height of planting season and we have been planting and sharing plants for the last several weeks. But, as we plant, we must also protect. Every day trees are being cut for development. Sometimes that is necessary, but far too often, alternatives are not considered. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Even before grit became a trendy personality trait, Tacomans had it. Tacomans know how to persevere and keep going when things get tough. Grit fits in with adaptability and resiliency, the art of bouncing back and forging through tough circumstances.

The end of summer means getting ready for planting season for all of us here at Tacoma Tree Foundation. Our team member Alejandro has been invaluable at getting out into the community and getting trees into the ground. We asked him to share his experience with Grit City Trees, community outreach, and why this work matters to him.

When you’re sick or injured, there’s a whole new set of actions you need to take to become healthy again.

At Tacoma Tree Foundation, addressing the impacts of environmental racism is one of our core principles.

Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, is a Japanese healing technique that relies on individuals’ total immersion in a green space.
If you have the opportunity to practice this technique reflect on the impact it may, or may not, have had on you. For many, COVID-19 has increased the amount of time spent at home, so practicing forest bathing might be a great way to get outside to stretch your legs and calm your mind.