Urban Forestry
Tacoma’s Urban Forestry Program works to sustain a healthy, vibrant urban forest that benefits everyone. Tacoma’s trees are essential to clean air, cool neighborhoods, reduce stormwater runoff, and improve public health outcomes. Our goal is to increase canopy cover from approximately 20% to 30% by 2030 while ensuring equitable distribution of trees across all neighborhoods.
Our dedicated team works behind the scenes to support the City’s urban forestry efforts, managing internal operations related to urban forestry policies and practices as well as engaging with community members to address challenges in tree planting and education. Explore the links below to learn more about our programs, how you can get involved, our Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP), and other resources to support a thriving urban forest.
Incentive Programs & Engagement Opportunities
Tree Care & Planting Resources
Urban Forestry Policy, Planning, and Manuals
Tacoma Canopy Cover
Trees in the Right-of-Way
Urban Forestry Projects
Meet Our Team
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Mike CareyUrban Forest Program Manager
Mike has worked in Green Infrastructure with the City since 2011, has been the City’s Urban Forester since 2015, and is an ISA Certified Arborist since 2011. With roots in landscape architecture, construction, and restoration ecology, he is responsible for directing the City’s urban forestry programs and developing policy to enhance the city’s tree canopy cover in support of the City’s Urban Forest Management Plan. Mike is grateful to influence investments in our natural environment to have a positive impact on community health outcomes.Favorite Tree(s): Metasequoia glyptostroboides (dawn redwood) – for resilience; Quercus garryana (Garry oak) – for local ecology; Aesculus hippocastanum (European horse-chestnut) – for co-evolution with pollinating insects.
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Lisa KennyCommunity Trees Program Coordinator
Lisa is a certified ISA Arborist with a background in conservation, habitat restoration, community engagement, and even mushroom cultivation. Lisa is passionate about uplifting the voices of people of color in the larger environmental movement, as we will experience climate impacts first and worst. Lisa believes our communities hold innovative solutions needed to transform this narrative. She passionately manages the City’s tree incentive programs, such as the Tree Coupon Program, Grit City Trees, and the Community Tree Program.Favorite Tree(s): Magnolias and Oaks! Magnolia × soulangeana (Saucer magnolia) in memory of her late grandmother and Quercus frainetto ‘Schmidt’, a more recent favorite.
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Shauna Cozad WillettConstruction Arborist
Shauna is joining the City of Tacoma as our new Construction Arborist. An ISA Certified Arborist since 2006, she has worked across nearly every facet of the arboricultural industry. Her experience includes research on the iTree software suite, serving as a climbing arborist and competing in numerous tree climbing competitions, working as a utility arborist, and consulting in the private sector on a wide range of development projects. After a decade in private practice, Shauna is excited to return to the public sector with the City of Tacoma, where she will draw on her background in landscape architecture, horticulture, restoration ecology, and community development. Outside of work, she is an avid mud runner in the pre-dawn hours, a devoted enthusiast of mountain activities, and delights in discovering wild trillium and saprophytic mushrooms.Favorite tree: the Japanese katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), whose early fall foliage carries the scent of apricots, and the copper beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Cuprea’), admired for its noble, spreading form and as a great climbing tree.
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Ryan HebertUrban Forest Analyst
Originally hailing from northern Wisconsin, Ryan arrived in Tacoma in early 2020 after years of community development and reforestation work in Detroit. Ryan is an ISA certified Arborist focused on cross-departmental operations, research, and program design to improve urban forestry outcomes. This includes stewarding progress of the Urban Forest Management Plan, management of tree programs like the Hazardous Tree Assistance and Heritage Tree Programs, and overseeing citywide tree inventory data and urban wood reutilization efforts. He loves biking around Tacoma in search of its biggest trees.Favorite Tree: Pinus strobus (Eastern white pine)