Why Seattle’s industrial district needs more trees

Combating environmental racism with trees

Current treetop initiatives are understandably and rightly focused on industrial bordering neighborhoods like Georgetown and South Park, which tend to be more colored. The Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, in partnership with the city, has planted trees where a canopy is required to filter the air and lower the surface temperature. If you look at an overview map of our treetops or even a satellite image of the city, you’ll find that what is essentially an urban desert in our port and industrial areas is surrounded by some of Seattle’s most diverse neighborhoods – a textbook case of Environmental racism.

However, the most effective way to improve air quality in neighborhoods like South Park and Georgetown could be to fight the battle on both fronts. With no more trees in the industry itself – in addition to the trees planted by the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps – these lower-income residential areas will always struggle against a flood of polluted air coming from elsewhere.

“The Youth Corps can dig trees and bring parishioners on board to tend trees on every single residential lot in these neighborhoods, and it still won’t be enough – because they’re mixed up and surrounded by industrial land,” said Weston Brinkley, the current chair of the Urban Forestry Commission, told me. (Since 2009 the Urban Forestry Commission has been advising the city on all questions relating to trees without compensation.)

Brinkley said he saw “great potential” for reducing the air pollution reaching these neighborhoods by reinforcing the industrial canopy.

“A tree in an industrial area is going to do a lot more work than a tree anywhere else,” he said. “They will be the heavy lifters who do more than their fair share when it comes to air pollution, when it comes to water pollution, when it comes to heating and cooling.”

Indeed, increasing the size of our industrial canopy would bring a number of benefits. For example, if you look at thermal images from the Seattle summer months, you will find that the vast, thinly forested area south of downtown gets much hotter than the whiter, richer, tree-lined neighborhoods to the north.

“All of this concrete really absorbs a lot of heat in the hotter summer months and creates a heat island effect,” said Joanna Nelson de Flores, director of restoration and administration at Forterra. “Trees can help alleviate that.”

More trees mean more biodiversity

Abundant industrial trees can also help keep pollutants out of the Duwamish Waterway’s runoff while promoting local biodiversity. You might not want to birdwatch SoDo anytime soon, but if there aren’t enough trees there, fewer birds – and fewer species of birds – will visit places like Chinatown-International District or Georgetown.

“These days we are thinking about creating continuous connected avenues for birds in our area,” said Joshua Morris, city protection manager at the Seattle Audubon Society. “And it’s the industrial areas that create the big gaps.”

A few more trees, said Morris, could go a long way for our flying friends: “It’s amazing to me how little vegetation is needed to attract wildlife.”