The Last 6000

Will you help us find them?

In 2015, the city hired the University of Vermont to use aerial technology to measure tree canopy. It used a technology called light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, in which a sensor-equipped plane collects data to create a three-dimensional model of the Earth’s surface and surface characteristics, such as trees. One result of that study was the discovery that there were only 6,338 trees with a trunk diameter of 30 inches or greater left in the city. In this campaign, we refer to these trees as "majestic." 

There is no street-level data from that study or studies done after it for the greater majority of our majestic trees. (There has been some limited street-level information gathering on street trees by the Seattle Department of Transportation in recent years.) Therefore, we don’t have a good picture or current data on what species these majestic trees are, their state of health, and where they currently live in our city.

This information is especially important for the future of our large trees as the city is currently relying on aerial canopy studies alone to assess the size of, and the gains and losses, of our urban forest. We believe reducing the tracking of our urban trees to just tree canopy measurements is an incomplete and misleading approach that needs to be enhanced with a thorough on-the-ground assessment. For example, an eight-foot-high Rhododendron hedge can have the same canopy size from an aerial view as a large Douglas Fir tree. Yet the qualitative difference in environmental benefits, impact to wildlife habitat and impact on human health and happiness, are not even comparable. (We do like Rhododendrons though.)

Through this campaign, we aim to invite our citizens and communities to locate and document majestic trees in our city in order to capture a current count, a census so to speak.