(birds sing) -Surrounded by the sounds of nature,
the ambient stillness (birds sing)
whispering creaks, (water rushing)
one might assume, were deep in the mountains, miles
from anything. (birds sing)
Not right in the heart of Seattle. (sawing)
-We're in the Longfellow Creek watershed,
so the volunteers today are removing some invasive plants,
mainly blackberry and ivy, that have been introduced
and growing in this site for quite some time. (grunt)
♪♪ -Seattle is renowned
for its greenery, the verdant landscapes
and mild climate of the Northwest.
But to reap the benefits of the natural world
in an urban environment, it must be protected.
-I think that there's
been an increasing awareness of how many things
urban, natural areas still do for our ecosystem.
They’re
stressed by climate change and human uses around them.
There are introduced plants
and have stressed the plants that are there.
-The Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association
does forest restoration
like this in a dozen natural areas volunteer days,
protecting and improving the wild spaces of this city.
One aspect in particular.
-I learned today
about the tree canopy and just understanding that
how we are letting
the native tree grows to create that canopy
that feels the work that we are doing
will contribute to that feels really good.
-That tree canopy has been a growing concern
for urban foresters in recent years.
Tree cover in the city provides
a myriad of benefits, climate change, resilience,
cleaner air, cleaner water, heat
protection, lower asthma rates.
The list goes on, and the cover is shrinking.
The City of Seattle conducted a study
comparing aerial scans from 2016 to 2021 and found
we lost 255 acres of tree cover
during that time, a decline of 1.7%,
approximately the surface area of Green Lake.
-While it's disappointing that we're backsliding,
it's really good information
because the city
has been investing a lot in our urban forestry
care management regulation, you know, policies around
management of our urban forest.
And we know now that that's not enough.
It kept us from backsliding even further, and it
you know,
there are areas that we did grow canopy
and canopy is getting more plentiful and healthy.
That loss is not happening equitably across the city.
-Patti Bakker is the Urban Forestry Policy Advisor
for the city's Office of Sustainability
and Environment.
She says armed with this data,
they are working towards the goal
of 30% canopy across the city set back in 2007.
It's currently 28.1% and they want to make sure
that growth is equitably distributed as neighborhoods
with fewer trees like Rainier Beach
have suffered disparate
impacts of extreme heat in recent years.
-So there's, you know, decades of various processes,
including redlining,
lack of investment in these neighborhoods.
What canopy be they had
has not been protected and maintained and retained.
There hasn't been investment to restore
that and bring canopy back up in those neighborhoods.
-Part of the way they plan to do that
is collaborating on Tree Equity
with the state, which was announced in April.
Another is a new tree ordinance,
which is not without controversy.
It lowers the threshold
of what makes a tree exceptional
from 30 to 24 inches in diameter,
protecting an additional 60,000
trees from being cut down without mitigation
by city estimates, with other rules for smaller trees.
But opponents have claimed it's at odds
with the goal of creating housing, believing
that it could raise construction costs.
Though the Master Builders Association
supported it in the end.
Still, other critics
believe it won't really protect trees from developers.
-The ordinance will protect some trees
on private property.
However, it really opens up the gates
to more cutting of
significant and exceptional trees
that we really need during this time of climate crisis.
I think it's going to be very detrimental to public health.
I also think that while we're protecting some trees
on private property,
it can sort of negatively impact homeowners
that are already struggling to stay within the city.
-In order to achieve,
achieve our climate justice goals, we need both
housing and trees.
We can achieve both.
It's a false narrative to say it's either housing or trees.
We can achieve both through good policy, good practices.
And this ordinance gets at that.
And in finding that balance and allowing flexibilities
for developers to develop the new housing
that is needed while protecting,
retaining or mitigating for and replanting trees elsewhere
as they develop the housing project.
But in the meantime, crews take the active
task of protecting the trees.
We already have,
like this SDOT team
prepping for the Mariners to host the All-Star Game. (chainsaw buzzes)
-So right now, he's just checking (mechanical noises)
what what 14 feet over the road looks like.
That's our our clearance that we have to hit. (chainsaw buzzes)
-And helping those
impacted by damage and disease like this parks crew.
-So we tend to see the sickest patients.
We see prevalence of disease
throughout the canopies (branch cracks)
Dutch Elm
Disease is pervasive across the country
and that's always taken a few each year.
and then we're having (indistinguishable).
-The ongoing dance to coexist
with nature in an urban environment. (Branch cracks)
-If we don't do
the clearances that are required on these trees,
the trucks that end up hitting these branches,
branches that get torn down,
causing a lot of damage to the tree
that could have been mitigated.
-One thing is clear, established healthy trees
change a space for the better, both aesthetically
and through the many human health benefits,
♪♪ especially as we look to the future
and the growing impacts of a changing climate.
-So you can see behind me here we have some fairly large,
well-established conifers.
There are a lot of natural areas around Seattle
that don't have large established conifers.
They lack a lot of the habitat and ecological values
that large coniferous forests can provide.
Both of these sites are getting conifers planted
depending on climate
and depending on the health and progress
of the restoration at this site.
We hope that they'll continue to grow and be able to be
major parts of the canopy in decades
to come.
♪♪ -Watch City Stream
Tuesday nights at seven on the Seattle Channel
or find us anytime online at seattlechannel.org.
♪♪