Find Your Community’s Tree Equity Score

Last month, American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization, published Tree Equity scores for 150,000 neighborhoods in 486 urbanized areas across the United States, including scores for Washington communities. Find Your Community’s Tree Equity Score on the National Explorer Here Each score, which can be examined by neighborhood or up to the city scale, is based …

Upcoming Webinars will Focus on New Tools Aimed at Growing Tree Canopy

Written by Hannah Kett, Cities Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy Within our cities and towns, the trees that line our streets, fill our parks and shade our streams, provide people and nature with a multitude of benefits – seen and unseen. These trees help clean the water flowing into streams, rivers and the Puget …

Coordinator’s Corner – May

This article is by Ben Thompson, Urban and Community Forestry Program Manager. Written on May 11, 2021. I come to you this month with very good news: THE EVERGREEN COMMUNITIES ACT (ECA) HAS BEEN PASSED BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND WAS SIGNED INTO LAW BY GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE ON MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021! The bill …

Urban Trees and Student Engagement in Spokane

Information about the 2022 DNR Urban and Community Forestry Grant opportunities will be made available on our website in September here. Student planting a tree in Spokane, WA. Photo credit: Erin Bangle provided by PEI Congratulations to Pacific Education Institute (PEI), who recently completed their first WA DNR Community Engagement and Planning Grant project this April! …

City of Kent launches Urban Forest Story Map

Information about the 2022 DNR Urban and Community Forestry Grant opportunities will be made available on our website in September here. Congratulations to the City of Kent, who recently completed their WA DNR Community Forestry Assistance Grant project this year! The City of Kent recognizes that a healthy urban forest, which helps to filter air and …

Celebrating Arbor Day 2021

Welcome to “Arbor Month!” Gov. Jay Inslee  has officially proclaimed April 14th as Arbor Day in Washington State, and National Arbor Day is on Friday, April 30 this year. No matter how you plan to celebrate this year, we are excited to share this day with you — a day and month dedicated to trees. …

Announcing the 2021 Urban and Community Forestry Seminar Series

This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, DNR's Urban and Community Forestry Program will continue to offer our seminar series virtually. In the past, we covered the same topic 8 times traveling throughout the state to present in each region. This year, given how accessible online presentations are, we are changing our seminar format up …

2021 Conferences Seeking Speaker Proposals

Organizers for the Pacific Northwest ISA Annual Training Conference, which will be held throughout October 2021, AND organizers for the Arbor Day Foundation's annual Partners in Community Forestry Conference, scheduled for Nov. 17-18 in Louisville, KY are both currently seeking speaker proposals. Find out the details for each conference below: PNW ISA Annual Training Conference …

Coordinator’s Corner – March

This article starts with the good news that the Evergreen Communities Act (ECA), now referred to as Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1216 (E2SHB 1216), has passed the state House of Representatives with a vote of 72-25, plus one excused vote. YES! As important as this moment is, I am taking a time to sit …

Urban Forestry Grants Awarded in 2021

As an increasing amount of communities throughout Washington work to boost awareness around the many benefits of trees, funding sources like those provided through the DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program can lend valuable support. Today, we are announcing the approval of seven urban forestry grants, totaling $82,326 for projects including: ApplicantProject NameFunding RequestMatchGrant Type350 …

Here’s How to Celebrate Arbor Day 2021 During Covid

Washington State’s Arbor Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 14th this year. During normal, non-pandemic times, the weeks ahead are generally full of prepping for April’s big celebrations. However, this year, traditional public gatherings to celebrate Arbor Day are largely postponed or reduced in size due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Not to worry! …