Green Seattle Partnership

What It Is?

Before urbanization and western expansion, the Puget Sound Region was covered in a rich forest environment. However, after nearly 150 years of logging and destruction, the remaining trees are a different species from the original native species, over-run by nutrient sucking weeds that kill any hope for a seedling to reach adulthood. Without intervention, the area of Seattle would turn into an ecological deadzone, where only certain ivy and weeds could grow. In reaction to this, locals began to organize themselves to deal with the issue. However, they quickly realized that the issue was too big to handle on their own, and that they needed the help of forest experts as well as the funding and support of the local government. In 2004, the Green Seattle Partnership was formed with the help of the Parks and Recreation Department, along with Public Utilities and The Office of Sustainability and the Environment. 

What Do They Do?

The project was created to educate and prepare citizens to aid the replenishing and sustaining of our local forests. A 20 year plan was constructed to aid in the rehabilitation, eventually becoming the largest urban forest restoration project in the U.S. The organization now deploys thousands of volunteers multiple times a year to plant new trees and get rid of harmful weeds. The program has conquered multiple feats including planting around 700,000 plants and restoring a total of 1,300+ acres of land. 1 million people have volunteered. 

Green Seattle Partnership serves to resolve the declining numbers and sizes of forested park lands. Unfortunately, nature cannot simply replenish these forests naturally, even if they were left untouched. Forested parklands require continuous stewardship in order to prevent the re-invasion of weed species, impacts of human use, climate change, and numerous outside factors. In sum, there are five basic problems that prevent Seattle’s forested parklands from sustaining themselves as a healthy native forest which include the following: Declining canopy, invasive-dominated understory and canopy, trees struggling to regenerate due to poor conditions, inadequate funding for restoration, and a lack of public knowledge about the problem. In order to fix this problem, GSP created an original 20 year plan, which started in 2006. As of today, a newly updated 10-year plan has already been put into action. This new 2017 Strategic Plan Update “describes the program’s evolution and successes, identifies areas of opportunity, outlines how the vision and goal will be achieved, and establishes community support for our forested parklands beyond 2025.” Nevertheless, the original 20-year plan and the current 2017 10-year plan continue to aim for the same goal.

The plan is divided into three sections:

• The job of the field work committee involves removing invasive plants, planting new native trees and understory plants, and establishing and maintaining those plants by continually removing invasive plant species from restoration sites. In order to do so, the restoration committee focused on certain objectives which include evaluating citywide forest stand conditions using the Tree-iage model, prioritizing parks and restoration sites, implementing restoration using best management practices (BMPs) and a 4-phase approach to control growth of invasive plants and encourage native plants. Sustainability objectives involve building and maintaining trails and monitoring and maintaining sites over the long-term. 
• The goal of the resources committee is to gather financial and human resources in order to maintain current operations. In order to do this, the resources committee outlined a series of objectives to complete which include continuing current city funding, raise 3 million dollars by 2009 (successful), develop long-term and stable public funding (currently successful), providing sufficient staff to support field work, volunteer management and programs. If all goes well, which it did, other objectives include increasing volunteer hours to 100,000 per year by 2009 (successful), and to increase productivity by providing support and materials to volunteers.
• The community committee has the most crucial job because without a committed community, the entire plan would have failed. The  plan begins with communication to build awareness that the forests are dying, to create a demand for action, and to show residents how they can help. More specifically, some key objectives of the community committee include creating a broad understanding of the issue and to gain support for GSP, to demonstrate appreciation for volunteers and seek their input on the program, to engage community organizations, to train forest stewards in volunteer management and in BMPs, and to encourage businesses to contribute to program goals.

Current Projects and New Problems

The closest and most recent project will be The Green Lake Party on March 7th, 2020. The goal of this event is to prune and remove invasive plants and to also plant native ground covers and shrubs in the forested edge of the lake. In order for this event to happen, this would need a minimum of 10 volunteers which has been fulfilled. The second event that will be happening is the Spring Sheet Mulching at Woodland Park will also be on March 7th, 2020. The goal of this event is to remove the invasive species called Herb robert in one of the original sites. Both events are open to the public and openly welcomes volunteers of all ages. 

Currently, Seattle is expected to have an increase in population, estimating to about 250,000 people with 47,000 new households until the year 2026. With that being said, one of the major problems the city will face is how to deal with this drastic growth while maintaining a sustainable economy. One major factor to this will have to do with the quality of greenspace which include parks, trails, and greenways that allow city residents for recreational opportunities while also maintaining a connection to nature to help with the typical vigor of urban life. Green Seattle Partnership plays an essential role in the future of the community of Seattle. GSP aims to restore Seattle’s urban forest, which would provide a higher quality of life due to a cleaner environment, reduced stormwater runoff and erosion, and the ability to enjoy nature close at hand. Not only that, but Seattle’s forest also provides the equivalent of a 1 million dollar per year benefit in stormwater management. Furthermore, forested parklands create a sustainable city by providing greenbelts which increases adjacent residential properties to an estimated 15%. This would benefit both landowners and the City through increased tax revenue. Since the population will become more dense over the years, factors such as greenbelts or parks allow the city to be more desirable. 

In terms of political ecology, this is how GSP aims to benefit the society as well as nature. By bringing the community together to restore the diminished forested parklands, GSP’s aims to reduce stormwater runoff, to improve water quality, to reduce erosion, to increase property value, to improve air quality, to make communities more attractive, to reduce global warming, to provide a wildlife habitat, and lastly, to buffer noises. 

Evaluation

Green Seattle Partnership has shown in numerous ways that they have accomplished their mission to “restore and maintain the forested parklands and designated natural areas of Seattle.” Since many invasive species like English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry have negatively impacted the growth and health of the native conifer trees, the group actively plants native trees in Urban forests around Seattle, as well as other Urban forests in the Pacific Northwest. For example, in 2019, the organization planted 90,233 native plants and 16,793 of those native plants were native trees. They also aim to remove the invasive species previously mentioned, and have successfully done that. In 2019 specifically, 362 acres were successfully weeded and watered and are now considered established acres of restoration. Since the organization believes that a collaborative effort between community members, experts in forestry, and the local government is the answer to the presented problem, volunteer work is highly valued. This past year, Green Seattle Partnership hosted the “Largest Green Seattle Day,” and they were joined by 1,170 volunteers. According to the organization’s 10 year strategic plan update, 879,752 total volunteer hours have been recorded from volunteer events offered by the organization. It is quite obvious that the organization has achieved their second goal: “Expand and galvanize an informed, involved, and active community around forest restoration and stewardship.” The organization’s 20-year strategic plan is well on its way and both of their main goals are being successfully achieved.

Volunteer Now!

I believe that the work and mission Green Seattle stands for is beneficial to the residents of the greater Seattle area by providing them a clean and safe community that does not detriment their health as well as an outlet for the community to engage with each other for this purpose. The partnership believes a healthy environment will work alongside healthy people. The Green Seattle Partnership along with their volunteers, gives back to the community, allows people to gather outside, and improves the overall health of a local park. All volunteers, regardless of their motivation, are welcome to join in restoring and caring for Seattle’s forest. For any questions regarding volunteering or donating, please email info@greenseattle.org