In 2007 Mayor Greg Nickels issued his Urban Forest Management Plan challenging Seattle to address its shrinking urban forest canopy. The Mayor’s Plan proposes to increase canopy coverage from current levels of about 23% to 30% over the next thirty years.
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 proposed interim tree protection measures, which were adopted in April 2009, and initiated a canopy cover study to inform the creation of permanent measures, which was completed in May 2009. This new canopy cover data allows us to better understand the state of the City’s urban forest, the impact of existing regulations, and current trends impacting the city.
DPD is now working as part of the city-wide Urban Forest Interdepartmental Team to develop a 5-year implementation strategy for the Urban Forest Management Plan which will include a comprehensive strategy for meeting our canopy cover goals including regulatory and non-regulatory approaches. To facilitate this plan, the Council and Mayor passed Council Bill 116557 in August 2009 to create an Urban Forest Commission. Based on the outcome of this work, DPD anticipates developing a draft of update tree protection regulations for discussion in mid 2010.
Please check this website for new information or meeting notices, or sign up for the project’s mailing list to receive notices via email.
