1. Be a Defender

Join our group, which is now putting together our work plan to:

1. Demand a moratorium on Port of Seattle plans to cut down 100+ acres of trees in the communities surrounding North SeaTac Park

2. Preserve all 200+ acres of this amazing urban oasis as a “Park in Perpetuity”

3. Increase the tree coverage in this community

4. Marshall the resources for a fully-funded comprehensive plan to restore the health of the trees and forest that protect this community from deadly toxics released by air traffic from SeaTac Airport and provide incalculable ecological, climate-stabilizing, recreational, and other benefits to the entire region.

Write us at info@KCTreeEquity.org to find out how you can take part in this critical work.

2. Comment at a Port Meeting

Port meetings are generally on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at noon (sign-in 11:30). Public comments procedures are published HERE. Speaking time is 2 minutes. Next meeting: TBD

To deliver public comment during a meeting via phone or Microsoft Teams: Write to commission-public-records@portseattle.org with your name and topic by 9AM on the day of the meeting. You will then be provided with instructions and a link to join the Teams meeting

To deliver public comment via email: Send your comments to commission-public-records@portseattle.org All written comments will be distributed to commissioners and attached to the approved minutes.

3. Contact Elected Officials

Let the people who represent you know that you appreciate their actions to protect North SeaTac Park, the communities around it, and our regional ecosystem of forests and waterways. Tell them that deforesting this community is unacceptable and that we want them to take action to protect our trees.

3. Sign up for Action Alerts

Use the link at the bottom of the page to get action alerts. Topics will include Port actions impacting the park, forest restoration work, and the campaign to stop deforestation in our community.

4. Join in a Forest Rescue Event

Non-native weeds dominate much of North SeaTac Park and trees are being lost. You can help turn back this tide and restore a healthy forest for our community: https://seatac.greencitypartnerships.org

6. Sign up for SAMP Notices

A National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Port’s Sustainable Airport Master Plan, which proposes significant tree destruction in this community, is expected in early 2022. Public comments will be accepted at that time.

Sign up HERE for the Port to alert you when that comment window opens. Fill out the form at the top with your info, then scroll down and choose the applicable options (Sustainable Airport Master Plan; and NEPA/SEPA Notifications.) Then scroll to the bottom and hit SUBMIT.

Sample Message

Dear Elected Official:

As an urgent matter of protecting public health, please act immediately to save over 100 acres of forest in North SeaTac Park and its surrounding communities. Without your timely action, this critical public health and ecological infrastructure will likely be replaced by parking lots and warehouses by the Port of Seattle. Please work within your own jurisdiction and in cooperation with others to ensure:

• A timely moratorium on further deforestation by the Port of Seattle in these neighborhoods until the risk to public and ecological health can be fully understood

• A full accounting from the Port of Seattle of the acreage and extent of its deforestation plans in this community

• Corrected zoning of North SeaTac Park from “Aviation Commercial” to “Park” and protection of North SeaTac Park as “A Park in Perpetuity”

• An adequately-funded long-term comprehensive plan to save the forest in this community from the degradation by invasive species that the Port has allowed to occur so intensively that it now threatens the survival of many of the trees as well as the health of the sensitive waterways within and surrounding this park. These bodies of water include Tub Lake, the last true bog in the Seattle area.

People in the communities around North SeaTac Park live directly under the flight paths of SeaTac Airport. These neighborhoods are state-designated as “highly impacted” by environmental health disparities - largely caused by the air traffic overhead.

The trees in the park and all around it clean, cool, and quiet this community’s air, providing critical, even life-saving, mitigation for airport pollution and noise. They buffer property values from the impact of airport operations.

Until this summer (2021), the Port’s Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) contained a proposal to destroy 11 acres of forested land inside this park and replace it with a parking lot. The Port dropped this plan only after 2,400 people signed a petition against it.

But the Port plans much more tree destruction in and around the park. Its SAMP and Real Estate Strategic Plan (RESP) contain proposals for destruction of over 100 acres of green space here.

This would constitute reckless endangerment of a community with already low tree cover*, a highly impacted community which is overburdened by environmental health disparities and cumulative historical disparate impacts.

*Notes

Tree canopy in SeaTac was estimated at 21% in 2017: Page 14 of Green SeaTac Partnership Urban Forest Enhancement Guide, Forterra, City of SeaTac, Port of Seattle, 2019. Accessed on 5/20/21 at https://forterra.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/GC_Seatac-guide_032621_WEB.pdf

Nationwide average tree cover is over 30%: Declining urban and community tree cover in the United States David J. Nowak, Eric J. Greenfield, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. V. 32, May 2018, Pages 32-55 https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2018/nrs_2018_nowak_005.pdf