In 2007 Mayor Greg Nickels issued his Urban Forest Management Plan challenging Seattle to address its shrinking urban forest canopy. Over the last thirty years, tree canopy coverage has decreased to just 18%. The Mayor’s Plan proposes to increase canopy coverage back up to 30% over the next thirty years. This will require the planting of nearly 650,000 trees by public and private entities over that time period.

In order to achieve its goals, the Plan asks everyone in Seattle to become better tree stewards, including the City itself. City departments are reviewing their tree care policies and undertaking updates where necessary to implement current best management practices. As part of that effort, DPD has undertaken an effort to review and revise the City’s tree protection and replacement regulations for private property.

DPD’s efforts began by taking comments received during the development of the Urban Forest Management Plan. We then established the Emerald City Task Force to provide early input and guidance as we began to critique our existing regulations and explore options for improving them.

Based on the recommendations of the task force and staff analysis, the Mayor has proposed interim tree protection measures and initiated a canopy cover study to inform the creation of permanent measures. The canopy cover will allows us to better understand the state of the City’s urban forest, the impact of existing regulations, and current trends impacting the city. We anticipate that this study will be complete in March of 2008. Once this research is complete, city staff will organize public meetings to share the findings and begin conversations about the challenges and opportunities that exist for meeting our canopy cover goals.

Please check this website for new information or meeting notices, or sign up for the project’s mailing list to receive notices via email.