Washington is known as The Evergreen State, a nickname coined by a newspaper editor in 1890 in honor of the region’s vast forests and their connection to our culture and economy. Yet as we celebrate those forests and the roughly 22 million acres they cover — approximately half of the state — the urban tree canopy also deserves attention.
“Trees provide a lot of benefits. When there’s shade, it’s better for your health. It also has a greater impact on stormwater, as well. By having more trees on the ground, they can uptake more rainfall and reduce runoff,” Samantha Frundle of the Clark Conservation District recently told The Columbian. “It will reduce the overall temperature on sidewalks and areas where there’s concrete, so there’s a lot of really good benefits.”
Frundle was taking part in a tree-planting event in the Minnehaha neighborhood and said, “Our goal is to plant 1,000 trees in Minnehaha, and we might go just a little bit outside of that area if needed.”
All of this is part of an initiative from the state Department of Natural Resources. Department officials identified Minnehaha as an area for planting because is has a lower percentage of tree canopy than other portions of Clark County.
Increasingly, tree canopies have been identified as a significant factor in a community’s quality of life. In addition to the benefits enumerated by Frundle, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency writes, “There are numerous other co-benefits associated with trees and vegetation including increased safety, higher property values, and increased climate change resilience.”
A 2019 study published in the journal Science claimed that globally planting 1 trillion trees — more than 120 for every person on Earth — could capture more than one-third of all the greenhouse gases humans have released since the Industrial Revolution. That conclusion has been disputed, but planting trees should be one leg of a multipronged approach for combating climate change. Restoring forests, cutting carbon emissions, reducing the burning of fossil fuels and protecting rainforests also are essential to curbing the global threat.
As Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation, told The Guardian: “We are seeing a surge in attention around urban trees around the world … not just because they are beautiful, but because cities realize that trees are an important part of resiliency, health, wellness, happiness, economic benefit — the list goes on.”
Vancouver is among dozens of Washington cities to earn a “Tree City USA” designation from the Arbor Day Foundation, which writes, “A city that takes care of its trees takes care of its people.” But taking care of trees is becoming more difficult in the age of climate change.
As Charles Ray, the city of Vancouver’s urban forester, said in 2023: “Our palette of trees is going to have to change. We need all development projects, as well as private property owners, planting large climate-forward species, not small ornamental trees that do not provide the ecosystem and public health benefits.”
Meanwhile, experts warn that a changing climate will increase the rate of tree mortality.
As of 2022, Vancouver’s tree canopy covered approximately 18 percent of land in the city. Officials have set a goal of 28 percent by 2030, and numerous planning and planting events have worked toward that goal.
The efforts are worthwhile — not only an homage to our state’s history, but as an attempt to enhance its future.
