Tacoma is giving away free trees. Here’s how to get one to plant in your neighborhood
Now through September, Tacoma residents can apply to bring new greenery to their neighborhoods through Grit City Trees – the city’s free street tree program.
Grit City Trees aims to equitably increase tree cover in Tacoma by educating the community on tree placement, selection and planting. Through the program, residents can order free trees — including skyrocket juniper, hackberry and Deodar cedar — to plant in the right-of-way near their properties.
“There’s been extensive research done that shows that people that live closest to trees receive the most benefits from them,” said Lisa Kenny, community trees program coordinator with the City of Tacoma’s urban forestry team. “We really want trees and people to be in safe spaces so that people can receive those benefits.”
Applications for Grit City Trees open in the summer each year. The city delivers trees and other free resources, including stakes, ties and compost, to neighborhoods in October, and returns in May to distribute free watering supplies. The program costs about $75,000 per year and is funded by Tacoma Surface Water Utility rates and the General Fund.
While the program brings more trees to the city broadly, it also focuses specifically on neighborhoods with high levels of need.
According to a 2018 report, only 20% of Tacoma’s land is covered with urban tree canopy – the smallest percentage of 11 cities assessed in the Puget Sound region, including Seattle, Bellevue and Snohomish. High-opportunity areas benefit from significantly more tree cover than low-opportunity areas, like those that have historically been red-lined. Red-lining is a discriminatory practice that denied residents of certain neighborhoods, especially low income, majority-Black neighborhoods, loans.
“We know that trees are distributed unevenly throughout the city of Tacoma, and the city of Tacoma is not unique in that,” Kenny said. “We’re still seeing impacts today that leave these disproportionate gaps.”
Many of the city’s tree programs integrate the Tacoma equity index into community outreach. For example, Grit City Trees prioritizes applications from areas identified as moderate, low and very-low opportunity on the city’s equity index map.
Since 2016, Grit City Trees has provided 1,770 trees to the community — a small step toward the city’s goal of 30% urban tree canopy cover by 2030. But to Kenny, the program is a reminder of the contagious nature of planting trees.
Often, Kenny said, people will hesitate to apply – but if one of their neighbors plants a tree, they’ll have a whole year to watch it grow and bloom. By the time the next application period rolls around, other neighbors from the block are excited to order their own trees.
“People can read about the benefits of trees,” she said, “but it’s very different when you can feel and see them.”
For help applying to the Grit City Trees program, readers can contact trees@cityoftacoma.org or attend a webinar hosted by the Tacoma Tree Foundation on Aug. 5. Applications close Sept. 4.
