More trees? Yes, please!
Trees provide a variety of environmental benefits like cleaner air and water, cooling shade, and reduced noise pollution. Just looking at trees has been shown to reduce stress. There is also a correlation between community trees and social connections. In other words, trees bring people together.
Last weekend, trees brought community members together here at the Port!
We were excited to have a number of future green leaders participate in the planting.
Seventy-seven volunteers of all ages came to plant trees on the right-of-way along Marshall Ave. Volunteers included Port commissioner Kristin Ang, council members Joe Bushnell and Sarah Rumbaugh, 23 members of the Western Washington Carpenters Union and several future green leaders.
Matt Mauer, the Port’s Government Affairs Manager and I organized this event in partnership with the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma Tree Foundation. Tacoma only has 20% tree canopy cover, which is lower than other communities in the Puget Sound region.
Thank you to all of the 77 community volunteers who participated in our planting event!
Together we planted over 51 trees! We planted five species of shade trees including hackberry, Pacific heritage oak, yellowwood, Kentucky coffee tree and London planetree.
After months of behind-the-scenes work it was exciting to see the trees in the ground and witness the instant community connections.
If you are interested in learning about other planting events and resources, please visit the Tacoma Tree Foundation and the City of Tacoma’s Grit City Trees websites.
Huge thanks to the Port Maintenance Department and ILWU Local 22, whose hard work preparing for the event went above-and-beyond and ensured its success!