September 14

How green is Wallingford?

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With its avid gardeners and street tree planters, one might assume that Wallingford’s tree cover was healthy, right? Mike Ruby wants to find out, and needs help from neighborhood residents. It’s great walking weather now!

Recent studies reported that the tree cover in the “Emerald City” has declined dramatically over the past decades. We have a chance to find out just how the trees of Wallingford have changed, for good or ill.

Back in 1992 Arthur Lee Jacobson and Evelyn Roehl surveyed Wallingford and cataloged 150 significant trees. And we have an inventory from the City of the street trees they have planted. The question is, are they all still there?

We are asking for 40 volunteers to walk around their own immediate neighborhood and check out the trees. We have broken out the Jacobson/Roehl list and the SDOT list into small areas of six to eight blocks. You only have to be able to say that a tree that seems it could be the listed tree is still there. If you are feeling like doing more we will have a few additional tasks you could do, like identifying additional trees that you feel are also significant and should be on our inventory. And you will learn from the lists just what kind of tree that is you’ve been walking past.

Can you take some time before the leaves fall to walk around your neighborhood (or maybe somewhere else in Wallingford if your neighbor has already volunteered) and complete our check list? If you are able to help, please send an email to Mike Ruby at mruby (at) envirometrics.com. You will receive the inventories and detailed instructions.

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  1. I also wonder it the type of tree cover has changed. This area was primarily a conifer forest, yet we now plant mostly deciduous trees, especially street trees.

    I interned for SPU one summer and did a literature review on the use of street trees to hold rain water and then release it back into the air via evapotranspiration. The idea was that street trees could help reduce the amount of runoff into the storm system during storm events. I learned only evergreens (broadleaf and conifers) are useful for this purpose in Seattle since it rains most often late-fall to early-spring when there are no leaves on deciduous trees. I've been thinking it would be worth exploring the idea of planting more evergreen trees to reflect pre-development Seattle, on streets and on private property. I'm not sure how to study that, though.

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