Move Seattle Street Trees
Trees improve our health and environment and make our neighborhoods friendlier places to live, work, and play. The City of Seattle’s goal, as outlined in the Urban Forest Stewardship Plan, is to increase Seattle’s tree canopy cover to 30 percent by 2037. That’s why, when we must remove trees, we replant two trees for every one removed. Tree replacement planting is funded by the nine-year Levy to Move Seattle, approved by voters in 2015.
Like all living things, trees age and die; and in urban areas trees do not plant themselves the way we need them to be planted. Thus the urban forest relies on people proactively planting trees in order to continue providing the many benefits we get from trees. To best facilitate this necessary tree planting, SDOT divides Seattle geographically into 27 separate management units. Each year, three management units are scheduled for tree planting and maintenance. This focusing of efforts allows us to reduce costs and improve tree planting outcomes.
Tree placement and species is determined by distances to existing infrastructure including pedestrian and vehicular traffic, under and above ground utilities, and environmental site characteristics. The palette of trees we have chosen is suited to meet the wide variety of site characteristics we find in Seattle’s urban environment. If you received a notice stating that your site is being evaluated for potential as a Move Seattle planting spot, the following is a list of trees you can expect:
| Size Class | Scientific Name | Common Name |
|---|---|---|
| Large | Eucommia ulmoides | Hardy rubber tree |
| Large | Fagus grandifolia | American Beech |
| Large | Fagus sylvatica 'Riversii' | Rivers purple European beech |
| Large | Ginkgo biloba 'Princeton Sentry' | Princeton Sentry Ginkgo |
| Large | Gymnocladus dioicus 'Espresso' | Espresso Kentucky coffeetree |
| Large | Nyssa sylvatica 'Afterburner', 'Firestarter', 'Wildfire' | Black tupelo (Afterburner) |
| Large | Quercus bicolor 'JFS-KW12' | American Dream swamp white oak |
| Large | Quercus coccinea | Scarlet oak |
| Large | Quercus frainetto | Italian (or Hungarian) oak |
| Large | Quercus imbricaria | Shingle oak |
| Large | Ulmus 'Frontier' | Frontier elm |
| Large | Ulmus 'Homestead' | Homestead elm |
| Medium | Cladrastis kentukea | Yellowood |
| Medium | Oxydendrum arboreum | Sourwood |
| Medium | Zelkova serrata 'JFS-KW1' | City Sprite Zelkova |
| Small | Carpinus caroliniana 'Native Flame' or 'Palisade' | American hornbeam |
| Small | Cercis canadensis | Eastern redbud |
| Small | Cornus Eddies white wonder | Eddies white wonder dogwood |
| Small | Koelreuteria paniculata; 'Coral Sun'; 'Fastigiata' | Goldenrain tree |
| Small | Chionanthus virginicus | American Fringetree |
| Small | Malus transitoria 'Schmidtcutleaf' | Golden Raindrops Crabapple |
| Small | Parrotia persica 'Ruby Vase' | Ruby Vase parrotia |
| Small | Parrotia persica 'Vanessa' | Vanessa parrotia |
| Small | Sorbus americana 'Dwarfcrown' | Red cascade mountain ash |
| Small | Styrax japonicus 'JFS-D' | Snowcone Japanese snowbell |
SDOT will start planting trees in the fall and may continue all the way through to the following spring. The trees will be watered through to establishment (approximately 3 years) via a watering bag at the base of the tree.
If you would like to hear more about this effort, please plan to attend one of our community meetings.
2020_2021 TREE PLANTING COMMUNITY MEETING SCHEDULE
Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, our informational community meetings are cancelled until further notice.
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