Trees in Eastlake
About the effort to strengthen Seattle’s tree protection ordinance
Websites:
www.TreePAC.org
www.Friends.UrbanForests.org
www.DontClearcutSeattle.org - a joint project of Neighborhood Treekeepers and Tree PAC
Facebook:
Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest
Tree PAC
Don’t Clearcut Seattle
Twitter:
TreePAC.org
urbanforests
DontClearcutSeattle
Instagram:
DontClearcutSeattle
FriendsofSeattlesUrbanForest
Our Eastlake neighborhood once had a profusion of large trees in private yards and along the streets. But in recent decades, many of Eastlake’s large trees have been cut down. This is despite growing evidence that large trees are needed to keep our city and planet healthy and livable. Trees reverse global warming, enhance the local microclimate, and are habitat for songbirds, birds of prey, and other wildlife.
Trees supply clean air, slope stability, runoff control, shade, beauty, and noise insulation, and human comfort. They grace our public spaces, and increase the value of private property. Trees are essential to the physical and mental health of those who live or work in Eastlake.
The Seattle Urban Forestry Commission, an official advisory body, finds that the Seattle’s existing Tree Protection Ordinance (last revised in 2009) is weak and is still more weakly enforced,
Don’t Clearcut Seattle, a citywide coalition, is pressing the Mayor and City Council to support the following proposals by the Forestry Commission to update and more strongly enforce the Tree Protection Ordinance:
Expand the existing Tree Removal and Replacement Permit Program, including 2-week public notice and posting on-site, as used by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) – to cover all Significant Trees—at least 6” diameter at breast height (DBH)–on private property in all land use zones, both during development and outside development.Require the replacement of any Significant Trees removed with trees that in 25 years will reach equivalent canopy volume – either on site or pay a replacement fee into a City Tree Replacement and Preservation Fund. Allow the Fund to also accept fines, donations, grants and set up easements.
Retain current protections for Exceptional Trees and reduce the upper threshold for Exceptional Trees to 24” DBH, protect tree groves and prohibit Significant Trees being removed on undeveloped lots.
Allow removal of no more than 2 Significant non-Exceptional Trees in 3 years per lot outside development.
Establish one citywide database for applying for Tree Removal and Replacement Permits and to track changes in the tree canopy.
Post online all permit requests and permit approvals for public viewing.
Expand SDOT’s existing tree service provider’s registration and certification to register all Tree Service Providers (arborists) working on trees in Seattle.
Provide adequate funding in the budget to implement and enforce the updated ordinance.
The ECC board of directors unanimously approved a June 24, 2018 letter to the Mayor and City Council, offering detailed suggestions for a stronger tree ordinance, and ECC was one of the parties in a successful administrative appeal that caused the City Council to drop its claim that the then-weak revision proposals did not need environmental analysis.
Three Councilmembers who had initially promised a stronger tree protection ordinance all unfortunately all retired from the City Council in 2019 without completing this work. A majority of the new City Council has pledged to adopt a stronger Tree ordinance. Taking the lead in 2020 are District 6 City Councilmember Dan Strauss and Eastlake’s own District 4 City Councilmember Alex Pedersen. See below for contact information to reach the Mayor and all City Councilmembers.
Additional concerns beyond the weakness of Seattle’s Tree Protection Ordinance
While Seattle’s notoriously weak ordinance has allowed the destruction of many large trees, other City policies are making them impossible to replace except by much smaller trees that will always stay small, and can’t make up for the loss of large trees and a failure to plant trees that will become large.
In the last decade the Mayor and City Council greatly reduced the size of yards required around new multifamily residential buildings, precluding large new trees from the developments that are consuming the Eastlake neighborhood and its trees.
City policies also discourage large trees on public rights of way. Seattle City Light removes or harmfully prunes trees that interfere with overhead utility lines, rarely (if ever) considering proposals to relocate the lines. Even where there are no overhead lines, the City Arborist (located in the Seattle Department of Transportation) does not allow the planting strips along streets to be newly planted with conifers like Douglas fir, cedar, or sequoia, on the grounds that in their early years the lower branches can block the sidewalk and parked cars.
How to reach the Mayor and City Council members to express your views
Whatever your views, it is important to exercise your rights as a citizen by communicating with our elected Mayor and City Councilmembers. And please send a copy to the Eastlake Community Council at info@eastlakeseattle.org. Doing so alerts ECC to your concerns so we can keep you informed and involved about follow-up.
Mayor Jenny Durkan accepts comments from the public by e-mail. You can also leave a comment on-line at http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/get-involved/contact-the-mayor (the system will reject any message of more than about 500 words). You can also reach Mayor Durkan by letter (which can be longer!) at 600 Fourth Avenue, 7th floor, P.O. Box 94749, Seattle, WA 98124-4749, or by fax at 206-684-5360. The Mayor’s reception phone is 206-684-4000.
The nine City Councilmembers prefer to be contacted individually, rather than by a group e-mail or letter. The e-mail addresses are as follows: alex.pedersen@seattle.gov, dan.strauss@seattle.gov, andrew.lewis@seattle.gov, tammy.morales@seattle.gov; teresa.mosqueda@seattle.gov, lisa.herbold@seattle.gov, lorena.gonzalez@seattle.gov, debora.juarez@seattle.gov, and kshama.sawant@seattle.gov. The U.S. mail address is: 600 Fourth Avenue, 2nd floor, P.O. Box 34025, Seattle, WA 98124-4025. The fax number is 206-684-8587. Each Councilmember also has a voice mail number listed at http://www.seattle.gov/council or which can be accessed at 206-684-8888.
Eastlake’s Trees: inventory, protection, and planting
[Click here for inventory form and instructions]
[Click here for 2013 Eastlake Tree Walk guide]
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. — Joni Mitchell
The Eastlake Community Council is working to inventory Eastlake’s trees, plant new trees, and protect existing trees where possible. It is all too easy to take trees for granted. Yet they provide habitat for birds and other creatures, clean air, slope stability, shade, beauty, and noise insulation.
Trees grace our public spaces, and can greatly increase the value of private property. Agencies are less likely to remove trees on public property if the neighborhood is aware and organized. Property owners are less likely to remove a tree if they know more about it. Locations lacking trees can be identified for an appropriate addition.
Let’s find out the diversity, quantity, and condition of trees growing in the neighborhood before we lose them. A start was the June 1, 2013 Eastlake Tree Walk. Click above or here for that day’s guide, which was prepared with the help of Tree Ambassador volunteers Penny Kriese, Debbie Lematta, and Philip Stielstra. The guide includes a walking map with photos and descriptions of 56 different tree species found along just five blocks of the Eastlake neighborhood, dramatizing the importance of trees to our local environment.
Please volunteer to help with ECC’s inventory of Eastlake trees. You can identify the trees on your property, your block, in a park, or anywhere else in Eastlake. Click above or here for the inventory form and instructions, including books and web sites for help in identifying and measuring trees, and how to contact ECC with questions. Thanks for helping with this important project! We’ll contact you about the results.
ECC welcomes questions about Eastlake trees, and suggestions of what more we can do to understand, protect, and promote trees in the neighborhood. Contact us at info@eastlakeseattle.org.