Forests can and do play an essential role in urban life in many places - 4 bil people live in cities world! Join my conversation with Sarah Low, Executive Director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation - an organization dedicated to community-powered urban greening in the South Puget Sound of Washington State. They provide a great template for community engagement around tree planting, tree care and integration of urban greening into the fabric of our lives. They are helping to shape our urban ecosystem.

Some say the Earth told us to go to our rooms and think about it for awhile back in the early days of 2020. Many many people were forced to do nothing in order to protect the old, the weak and the vulnerable when SARS2 spread around the world. It has been a human crisis that called for solidarity. This interview was recorded in the early parts of 2020, just as the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day was just getting started. Even though a whole Earth Year of activities were being planned, the coronavirus put a small dent in the "normal" schedule of events. 

Tacoma Tree Foundation website https://www.tacomatreefoundation.org/

Tacoma Tree Foundation on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tacomatrees

and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tacomatreefoundation

How racism kept black Tacomans from buying houses for decades by Kate Martin in Tacoma News Tribune from 2018

Compare the historic redlining maps against the City’s urban forestry canopy data

City of Tacoma Urban Forest Management Plan https://www.tacomatreeplan.org/

Special Issue “The Science and Practice of Managing Forests in Cities” in the journal Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Thanks for the Seattle band Dumb Thumbs for providing the theme song. You can find all of their tunes at dumbthumbs.bandcamp.com.

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