Spokane’s Path to 40% Canopy Cover

One Tree City USA community is integrating the Foundation’s Community Canopy program to reach their tree canopy goals.

Past years of Spokane’s Arbor Day celebrations highlight their dedication to trees.

Trees are something the people of Spokane, Washington, are passionate about. They embrace the benefits trees provide and take a lot of pride in their natural environment. So it should come as no surprise that the city has maintained Tree City USA recognition for the past 18 years.

Recently, to confirm this fact, the City Council set a new aspirational goal of 40% canopy cover by 2030. With a current canopy cover of 23%, this will be a considerable increase in community trees. Katie Kosanke, urban forester for the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation, is confident that they are up for the challenge, however.

“The City Council created a new aspirational goal of a canopy cover initiative of 30% by 2030,” said Katie, “and there was so much community support, so much public testimony, that at that time the City Council said, ‘Hey let’s do even more.’ And they changed that 30% to 40%.”

Planting Trees on Public and Private Property

The challenge that Spokane faces with this new tree canopy goal is one many other communities are also up against: There is a finite amount of public property on which to plant those trees. But that isn’t going to slow this city down. It has a history of supporting tree planting by providing free trees to residents.

Initially the City Parks and Recreation department managed the tree distribution themselves. “We did have a do-it-yourself community tree program back in 2015, and the goals were to improve storm water mitigation and add canopy coverage, especially in low-income neighborhoods,” said Katie. “It was with a lot of coordination on the city’s part and a little bit of a complicated customer experience.”

In an effort to simplify the process, they began working with the Arbor Day Foundation’s Community Canopy program in 2017. Homeowners had the ability to choose from a few different tree species and discover where to plant the tree in their yard for the greatest benefit using a customized online tool. “The Community Canopy program just really made sense for us. The Arbor Day Foundation handles all of the customer engagement, the tracking, the planting and care instructions. Then the follow-up satisfaction surveys were great to have as well,” added Katie.

It worked so well that Spokane now holds a Community Canopy distribution for residents each spring, giving away 1,000 trees every year. And while this event couldn’t happen in the spring of 2020, it is back again for the spring of 2021.

The Importance of Partnerships

Funding for the annual Community Canopy tree distribution is provided by the city’s utility department, an important point of financial support at a time when urban forestry budgets are tight. Katie said that the utility department is proud to make this program a possibility “because they recognize the benefits that trees provide and want to improve the storm water mitigation aspects throughout the city.”

The Community Canopy program will now help Spokane reach for their 40% tree canopy goal, and Katie is feeling confident. “There’s only so much right of way throughout the city and only so much planting potential within the right of way. There’s certainly a lot more planting potential on private properties and maybe room for bigger species of trees as well. So I think through programs such as this, planting trees on private properties can contribute significantly to the canopy cover goal.”

This is just one example of how a program that is generously supported by Arbor Day Foundation members and donors — Tree City USA — can be combined with additional programs funded by other nonprofit or municipal partners to boost the impact of trees exponentially.