DEFENDERS OF HIGHLINE FOREST
January 5, 2024
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What’s in a name?
The Defenders expand their mission!
News flash, folks: In response to the Port of Seattle’s plans to increase development around SeaTac Airport, we’re changing our name from Defenders of North SeaTac Park to Defenders of Highline Forest. This will not reduce our advocacy to save North SeaTac Park. We believe it will strengthen our effectiveness. Defenders of North SeaTac Park will remain a key campaign.
Since Defenders of North SeaTac Park formed, we have called foul on Port of Seattle plans to develop inside the park. This park had been given to the community to mitigate effects of a previous airport expansion. We asked you to sign the Community Forest Consensus that calls for protecting the park in perpetuity and halting the destruction of forest within two miles of the airport. Our community deserves to keep its park and enough tree canopy to protect our health.
And did you ever respond! Since then, over 3600 community members, including 61 organizations and businesses, and 14 elected officials, have stepped forward to sign the Consensus and empower the movement to retain these important green spaces. And when we asked you to help by sending e-mails or testifying before your local elected officials, you came through big-time!
Now, language that would make it easier for Port officials to preserve the park has been included in legislation that awaits Congressional approval – this wouldn’t have happened without YOUR voices calling for that protection.
We’ve known all along that the problem is even bigger than this. Just last month, the Washington State Department of Ecology released a map that illustrates in detail the harmful environmental impacts that all communities surrounding SeaTac Airport are subjected to:
(Ed. note: to see the interactive map in its entirety, click on it or on this link. When that page pops up, you will need to scroll down to find the “Environmental Health Disparity Map Rank.”)
It’s a double-whammy. The dark purple areas on the map shown above indicate that some of the worst environmental conditions anywhere in the state are concentrated in the Highline area – the Department of Ecology calls these “overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution.” These areas are also where we’ve experienced extensive destruction of our local forest to make way for more polluting development – and even more is planned.This is why the Defenders of North SeaTac Park have decided that our task as advocates for green spaces and especially for tree canopy needs to expand to include the entire Highline community, and we invite you to join the fight as Defenders of Highline Forest.
We think you’ll agree that this is a cause worth fighting for – the health of our local forests and the health of our local communities are closely connected. And we hope you’ll not only follow our work, but join us in this effort. Keep reading to learn what’s happening in your community and how you can make an impact.
Port of Seattle’s Land Stewardship Plan
Defenders of North SeaTac Park were joined by representatives from Tree Action Seattle, Seattle Needs Trees, The Last 6,000 and Extinction Rebellion at the Port of Seattle Commission’s December 12 meeting to critique the Port’s proposed Land Stewardship Plan and Tree Replacement Program. Photo credit Katie Kresly and Sandy Shettler.
Stewardship or Snow Job?
Last fall, the Port of Seattle released a draft of its Land Stewardship Plan and Tree Replacement Program with only minimal community outreach, even less time to review the documents, and a proposed quick timeline for final consideration by the Port Commission. While the Defenders agree that land stewardship is important, and we think that tree retention is essential, we objected to the very short window allowed for public input.
Port Commission Vice President Toshiko Hasegawa listened to our concerns and worked with Port officials to allot more time for public comment. Many of the Defenders, along with other environmental groups from Seattle, showed up at the Port Commission’s final meeting of the year to express our concerns about the inadequacies of the Port’s documents. (You can take a look at the Land Stewardship Plan and the Tree Replacement Program.) We also documented our concerns in a letter, which you can read on our website.
January 5, the day we mailed this newsletter to you, is “officially” the last day for public comment. But Commissioner Hasegawa has acknowledged that the public can still send letters/e-mails or show up to testify about these issues until the stewardship plan and tree program come before a final vote of the Port Commission, probably in March. Here are the Port e-mails: EnvironmentSEA@portseattle.org, metruck.s@portseattle.org, calkins.r@portseattle.org, cho.s@portseattle.org, felleman.f@portseattle.org, hasegawa.t@portseattle.org, mohamed.h@portseattle.org
You don’t need to write a long letter like we did, but you sure could contact the Port Commission – and cc your own city council – to let them know there’s a BIG gap between the Port of Seattle’s plans (which recommend the removal of more trees and further building of warehouses), and any meaningful effort to reverse the airport-related health impacts that our community is already experiencing.
What’s happening in your community?
A few years ago, the Port of Seattle funded a Forterra study to assess green space conditions in the airport-adjacent cities of Burien, Des Moines and SeaTac, and to suggest strategies for increasing tree canopy. These “Green City Partnerships” were intended to “strengthen neighborhoods, provide safe access to nature and offer numerous benefits to our cities.” As a coordinated regional effort, the Green City Partnerships were also meant to “protect and enhance the many benefits these forests and natural areas provide.”
Forterra advised that cities in the Puget Sound region should have an ecological capacity to achieve 40% or more tree canopy (tree coverage). So how’s that “protect and enhance” thing going? Wellll… here’s a quick rundown, city by city of how much tree canopy was found. The percentages you’ll see below were included in Forterra’s initial assessments, or found on city websites.
BURIEN – 30% canopy cover
In 2022, Burien established tree protection regulations aimed at preserving the city’s trees. These require Burien residents to obtain a permit before removing more than one tree per year. Additionally, any trees that are designated as “exceptional” cannot be removed without a permit, regardless of their size. The regulations also require that any trees that are removed be replaced with new trees or other vegetation. Failure to comply can result in fines and other penalties.
Click here to learn more about Burien’s other canopy enhancement activities.
DES MOINES – 29% canopy cover
In the years since Forterra’s study, there have been significant development pressures from the Port of Seattle and the Highway 509/Sound Transit Light Rail extension that have seen acres of forested land along Des Moines Memorial Drive, and along 24th Avenue S and S 216th Street in Des Moines succumb to development. And there are plans to develop even more land in that area.
Recently, former Des Moines Parks and Recreation Director Patrice Thorell visited one of the remaining treed properties in question, which connects the Des Moines Creek Trail with the Barnes Creek Trail. She told us that when she was Parks Director, there had been plans for that land to serve as a recreational amenity for runners, hikers and dog-walkers. The parcel includes tall trees, habitat for birds and small mammals, and serves as an important green buffer for Des Moines Creek, which is a salmon-bearing stream.
But recently, the Des Moines City Council approved a plan to let the Port go ahead with even more development in the area.
Hmmm… kinda makes one wonder how that tree canopy enhancement’s coming along in the Waterland City.
We’ll be attending the City Council’s Environment Committee meeting in February to ask a few questions about that. Fellow Des Moines residents, care to join us?
NORMANDY PARK – 46% canopy cover
Normandy Park was not involved in Forterra’s Port-funded study, but they conducted their own tree canopy assessment, and have also established their own Heritage Tree Program to encourage more appreciation of trees. And they’re already at 46% canopy cover – way to go, Normandy Park! Hey, that’s the area on the Department of Ecology map that isn’t deep purple! Mere coincidence? We think not.
SEATAC – 25% canopy cover
It’s worth noting that SeaTac’s canopy cover figure doesn’t even take into account the largest property owner in the city – which is the Port of Seattle – which funded the Forterra study. We think we know why. In its own documents, the Port concedes that of the nearly 2,800 acres of land the airport occupies: 44% is impervious land cover; 27% is the grass cover between runways on the airfield; shrubs, bare ground, and surface water account for another 12% of the land; and tree cover amounts to 17%. No wonder the Port didn’t want its properties included in the assessment – it would have made the City of SeaTac’s paltry 25% canopy cover look even worse.
The City of SeaTac has made an effort toward planting more trees, but certainly not enough to account for the thousands of trees that have been wiped out by the 509 freeway and Light Rail extension projects that have cut a broad swath through the south end of that city. There are tree replacement requirements associated with those projects, of course, which will serve folks in the future, but the barren terrain is pretty devastating for the folks living in the south part of SeaTac right now.
TUKWILA – canopy cover unknown
Tukwila has worked with a batch of partners to implement several tree-planting and forest restoration projects. We hope to report more on their efforts in an upcoming newsletter. 
A Green Amendment to our State Constitution?Green Amendments for the Generations is a movement that is catching on across the nation. It calls for state governments to consider and honor the rights of all people to healthy environments. By securing the passage of enforceable environmental rights amendments in the Bill of Rights section of every state constitution, governments will be required to consider the environmental impacts of every decision they make and action they take.Pennsylvania, Montana, and New York already have adopted Green Amendments. Washington and 18 other states are in various stages of advancing the idea of a constitutional level of protection for basic human environmental rights.To learn more, visit the link above.
It’s time to convert those dark purple areas on our local map into a vibrant, tree-filled green. Let’s get started, Defenders!
THANK YOU for reading this newsletter and considering taking action!
Content for this edition of your Defenders of Highline Forest newsletter was provided by Sandy Hunt, Katie Kresly, Stephen Lamphear, Barbara McMichael, Andrea O’Ferrall, Annie Phillips, Sandy Shettler, and Noemie Maxwell Vassilakis
Copyright © 2024 Friends of North SeaTac Park Forest, All rights reserved.