As hotter summers loom, officials warn urban forests are no longer just about beauty. They’re becoming critical cooling spaces for neighborhoods across Washington.
SEATTLE — On the hottest days, many people flock to Seward Park in Seattle for relief.
Some arrive for the trails. Others for the shade. But for many Seattle residents without air conditioning, the old growth forest offers something increasingly essential during extreme heat: cooler air.
Officials say temperatures inside parts of the park can feel 10 to 15 degrees cooler than surrounding neighborhoods — a difference state leaders now argue could become even more important as Washington faces hotter, drier summers.
Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove spent Tuesday morning at Seward Park with the Audubon Society. The group receives funding from the Department of Natural Resources for projects that plant trees, restore forests and expand shade in communities across Washington. It also includes restoration work.
“Having trees in urban areas can literally save lives during heat events,” Upthegrove said.
Seattle has already seen significant tree loss.
According to city data, Seattle lost roughly 255 acres of tree cover between 2016 and 2021 — about the size of Green Lake.
“A day like today, there’s going to be so many people here because a lot of people in Seattle just don’t have air conditioning,” Joey Manson, the Seward Park Audubon Center Director, said..
Tree Equity Score data shows nearly one in five Seattle residents lives in neighborhoods without enough trees.
To close that gap, Seattle would need more than 473,000 additional trees — expanding the city’s tree cover by more than 10 square miles.
Officials say the disparities are often most visible in lower-income communities, where fewer trees can mean hotter streets and fewer places to escape dangerous heat.
“We more often see a lack of trees in low income and diverse neighborhoods,” Upthegrove said.
At Seward Park, the Audubon Society says support from the Department of Natural Resources has helped transform entire sections of forest over the last decade.
“This one tree right here that’s at least 50 feet tall — all this tree line right here is all new,” Manson said. “All this has happened in the last 10 years and it’s with support from DNR.”
Manson says the story ultimately comes back to people.
On summer evenings, families gather beneath the trees with picnic dinners, escaping the heat under the canopy.
“It’s great to see them out here,” Manson said, “but it’s also kind of sad that they don’t have the resources in their home or neighborhood to feel comfortable where they live.”
Upthegrove says there’s no guarantee the funding fight is over believes it was community members stepping up that helped secure it this time around.
“I think it was the community’s voices, the organizations that provide this tree cover, the parks, the cities that see the return every day helped ensure the funding continued,” he said.
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