Volunteers have been busy planting trees in the first of a series of three events backed by the Port of Seattle, operator of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Led by non-profit Forterra, and in close coordination with the City of SeaTac, 25 volunteers planted more than 200 native trees, shrubs and ground cover along the shores of Angle Lake.
These events are part of a multi-year collaborative project to involve communities near the airport (in Burien, Des Moines and SeaTac) in Forterra’s Green City Partnerships program. The program was created with the philosophy that healthy forested parks and green spaces have the power to strengthen neighborhoods, provide safe access to nature, and offer many valuable benefits to the environment.
Forterra’s Green City Partnerships program works with 15 cities and one county in the region to steward and restore urban forests. The program is committed to restoring 13,000 acres, has planted 1.2 million trees and shrubs, and trained 284 volunteers as forest stewards. Green City Partnerships serve more than 1.6 million residents across the state.
The Port’s Airport Community Ecology (ACE) funding has helped to bring Burien, Des Moines and SeaTac into the network. In November 2016, the Port Commission authorized the ACE Fund, recognizing that neighboring communities that experience more impacts from airport operations should also receive more benefits.