Tree Stories
We want to share your stories and showcase your efforts to make every day Earth Day. Our focus is on sustainable action. Tell us about your experiences with sustainability and what you do to keep Earth green.
While Earth Month may be over, the South Sound’s year of action for the planet is just beginning. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the Earth Day South Sound partnership has committed to a goal of achieving a healthy tree for every child in the South Sound. To reach this goal, we need the help of all our community members.
If you are faced with tree removal, consider the birds, bugs, raccoons, surrounding plants, and the soil that would appreciate that tree for shelter, food, nutrients, and root stabilization for much time to come. It will serve far more services and benefits as a snag than firewood.
At Tacoma Tree Foundation, we believe that children’s learning shouldn’t be confined to the classroom. That’s why our Expanded Learning Opportunity program, Nature Explorers, takes Edison Elementary students outside to learn the science of the natural world around them.
The house was built in the 1940s, but these trees must have been older than that. They were so massive that the area in between and around them served as a natural playground for years to come. I learned all about bugs and birds and squirrels from those trees. My sister and I climbed all over them, hid in their nooks and crannies, drew pictures with chalk in our driveway under their shade.
Over the past year and a half, the 19 large Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) Power Tower’s that lined the broad median have come down. In their place now rise 12 steel poles and (what we’re most excited about) 197 newly planted trees.
They communicate with each other. Send out pheromones when stressed. Adapt to the environment. Care for their children. Live in community. Breathe.
This innovative program is designed to bring together community educators to teach empathy for wildlife and environmental stewardship through nature-based science.
