1. Urban Forestry in Seattle
Mike Kuhns
USU Extension Forester
Seattle Facts & Figures
• Metro area population 3.4 million; city 600K
• Density 7,100/mi2 (SLC is 1,700/mi2)
• 41% of city’s area i water
f it ’ is t
• 37 in./yr. precip; 0.8 in. in July; cool, mild
• Home of Starbucks, Nirvana, Microsoft, Pearl
Jam, Amazon, Jimi Hendrix, Boeing (sort of),
Bruce Lee (buried)
• Called ‘Rain City’, ‘Emerald City’, ‘Jet City’
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2. Sabbatical with the U.S. Forest Service PNW
Research Station’s New Urban Natural
Resources Stewardship Program
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3. Seattle City Forestry
• SDOT – Non-boulevard street trees
– City Arborist; City Landscape Architect
• Parks & Rec – Park and boulevard trees
– City Forester
• Planning & Development – Private trees
• Seattle City Light – Utility trees
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4. Seattle Urban Forestry Issues
• Parking strips privately owned w/ city easement
• Canopy cover from 40% in 1972 to 18% in 2007
– Goal to increase cover to 30% in 30 years
y
• Most canopy not native
• New ordinance may restrict all private tree removal
– Currently can remove 3 trees/year without permit
– Partly due to major landslide & stormwater runoff concerns
• 2007 Urban Forest Management Plan –
tiny.cc/SeattleUFMP
Citizen Involvement
• Seattle Urban Forest Stakeholders
• Green Seattle Partnership
• Cascade L d C
C d Land Conservancy
• PlantAmnesty
• Seattle Parks Foundation
• Earthcorps
• Many community, neighborhood groups
Urban Canyons
Space for Trees
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5. Traffic
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6. Traffic Circles
SEA Streets
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7. –7

8. Tree Protection
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9. Signs
Woody Weeds
• Woody weeds everywhere; only Tamarisk
requires control.
• Noxious weeds they’ve given up on:
they ve
– Blackberries, butterfly bush, ivies, Scotch broom.
• Weeds of concern:
– Common hawthorn, English holly, English laurel,
European mountain-ash
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10. Woody Plants of Note
• Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
• Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
• Santa B b
S t Barbara ceanothus (C. i
th (C impressus)
)
• Raywood ash (Fraxinus oxycarpa)
• witch-hazel (Hamamelis species)
• variegated sweetgum (Liquidambar
styraciflua ‘Variegata’)
Woody Plants of Note
• cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata)
• Persian parrotia (Parrotia persica)
• purpleleaf plum (P
l l f l (Prunus cerasifera)
if )
• sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima)
• Swedish whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia)
Japanese maple
(Acer palmatum)
incense-cedar
(Calocedrus Santa Barbara ceanothus
decurrens) (Ceanothus impressus)
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11. Raywood ash (Fraxinus oxycarpa) witch-hazel (Hamamelis species)
variegated sweetgum (Liquidambar
witch-hazel (Hamamelis species) styraciflua ‘Variegata’)
cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata) Persian parrotia (Parrotia persica)
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12. purpleleaf plum (Prunus cerasifera) purpleleaf plum (Prunus cerasifera)
Swedish whitebeam
sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) (Sorbus intermedia)
Weyerhaeuser Bonsai Collection
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13. References Thanks to…
• Seattle City Tree Portal – www.seattle.gov/trees • U.S. Forest Service PNW Research Station
• Seattle SEA Streets – tiny.cc/SEAStreets Urban Natural Resources Stewardship
• Pervious pavement – www perviouspavement org
www.perviouspavement.org • Nolan Rundquist, Seattle City Arborist SDOT
Rundquist Arborist,
• Wash. Park Arboretum – depts.washington.edu/wpa
• Butchart Gardens – www.butchartgardens.com
• Bonsai – www.weyerhaeuser.com/Company/Bonsai
• King County Weeds – tiny.cc/KingCountyWeeds
• Fremont Area – www.fremontseattle.com
• USU Extension Forestry – extension.usu.edu/forestry
Mike Kuhns
USU Extension Forester
435-797-4056
mike.kuhns@usu.edu
extension.usu.edu/forestry
www.treebrowser.org
www.utahforestproducts.org
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