Windz of Change Alliance, University of Washington Botanic Gardens and Tacoma Tree Foundation partner to deliver the Urban Forest Symposium every year. The symposium brings together a diverse audience of Tribal Peoples, arborists, land managers, academics, policymakers, designers, program managers, municipal planners, non-profits, volunteers, students, and advocates to focus on timely local urban forest topics every year.

2025 Urban Forest Symposium

We Rise Together!: Bridging Gaps in Urban Forestry

Emerald Shores by SpeakThunder Berry, Puyallup, Nakota, Warm Springs

Wednesday November 5th, 2025

Center for Urban Horticulture

UW Seattle Campus

(3501 NE 41ST STREET, Seattle, WA 98105)

10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

$110 in-person. $45 virtual.

Discounts available for Indigenous attendees, students, corps members, and financial aid requests.

Register

Given the current state of our country, the increasing impacts of resourcing shortfalls and climate change, how do we maintain our relationships with each other to keep Urban Forestry and eco-cultural systems work moving forward? How do we ensure momentum we have built doesn’t disappear? Our Symposium is a meaningful venue for people to connect, build, strengthen, steward, and expand relationships collectively for creating actionable solutions together.

Let’s gather to celebrate, rejuvenate, rebuild, and re-Indigenize!

AGENDA

2025 Speakers:

Speakers Talk Title & Abstract
 Warren King George – Historian at Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Keynote
Ed Carriere – Suquamish Master Basketmaker and Dale Croes – Wet Site Archaeologist

“Living-Off-The-Land” for 4,000 Years Using Forest Products

Ed, 91, has woven baskets for over 60 years. He learned the art from his great-grandmother, Julia Jacob of the Suquamish Tribe, who raised him from infancy. When his Great Grandmother’s hands weakened with age, she told Ed he would have to make the baskets. He was 15 years old. 

As his skill improved, he found it to be a very pleasurable and challenging experience to produce old-style Salish Sea cedar root and limb clam baskets. His Great Grandmother passed away in 1960, and for a while basketmaking fell by the wayside as Ed graduated from high school, entered the Marine Corps to serve in Korea and then the working world as a developing machinist. Some years later in 1969 he started to revive the old basketry art. He says he almost waited too long. It took him four years to regain the knowledge and skills it takes to weave a nice looking, dependable clam basket that he knows his Great Grandmother would be proud of.

Over the past 12 years Ed has teamed up with Dr. Dale Croes, an archaeologist specializing in ancient basketry throughout his fifty-year scientific career; together they replicated the 2,000-year-old pack baskets from a waterlogged archaeological site called Biderbost, a site in Ed’s traditional Salish territory. Ed and Dale combined their fifty years of cultural and scientific talents to produce their stories together, entitled Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry, Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science, 2018. Through Ed’s study and replication of ancient Salish Sea baskets, he has learned from and revived the art of over 200 generations of his ancestors and/or grandparents. By replicating their ancient archaeologically recovered baskets, he has learned from each one of them.
Jeffrey Thomas – Timber, Fish & Wildlife Director, Puyallup Tribe and Michael Martini – US Director of Urban and Community Forestry, Sustainable Forestry Initiative A Conversation on Bridging Gaps in Urban Forestry Efforts
Dave Upthegrove – Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands

Growing our Urban Forests

Our urban forests are more than just the trees that line our streets – they are the hinge point that connects our ecosystems together. From absorbing carbon and floodwater to connecting our rivers to the Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean, urban forests are vital to ensuring healthy habitat, thriving ecosystems, and free-flowing rivers. In this speech, Commissioner Upthegrove will detail the ways DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program is working to achieve tree equity, improve urban ecosystems, and connect Washington’s rivers and watersheds across the state.
 Nate Moxley, Gina Lee and Lisa Cieko – City of Seattle
Shantala Martin – Asset-Based Community Builder, Seattle Housing Authority

Foresting Seattle: A Neighborhood Approach to Urban Forestry

The City of Seattle’s Foresting Seattle program is a neighborhood-based, community-first approach to urban forestry planning, tree planting, and stewardship led by the Office of Sustainability & Environment in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation. Foresting Seattle is focused on two neighborhoods experiencing low tree canopy, high urban heat, and air pollution: Chinatown-International District and Beacon Hill.

Over five years, this initiative will be working in close collaboration with City of Seattle departments and community partners to advance three interrelated priorities:

-Steward a Connected and Resilient Urban Forest: Expanding the boundaries of urban forest restoration across from Green Seattle Partnership sites in Seattle parks natural areas and onto adjacent forested properties managed by Seattle Housing Authority and Seattle Public Schools in partnership with ECOSS and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

-Train Youth for Future Careers in Urban Forestry: Generating youth workforce opportunities through Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Youth Green Corps, providing training and employment pathways in urban forestry.

-Community Leadership in Tree Equity: Building neighborhood leadership by forming two Neighborhood Teams to co-develop and implement Tree Action Plans, leading to the planting and establishment of more than 400 new trees on public and private lands. By linking ecological forest health, workforce development, and community engagement in decision-making, Foresting Seattle aims to reshape how the City and Seattle communities can work together to grow a healthy and equitable urban forest.
Joey Hulbert – Research Assistant Professor, Forest Health Lab, Washington State University

Western Redcedar Dieback Increases with Urban Heat

Western redcedar is an important component in northwest forests and communities, but recent increases in dieback have been linked to warmer and drier summers throughout the region. Given this link and the disparities in urban heat, we hypothesized redcedar would be less healthy hotter neighborhoods of cities in the northwest. By leveraging community scientist observations from the Western Redcedar Dieback Map project on iNaturalist and data from urban heat island mapping campaigns, we found the probability an observed tree had top dieback increased with afternoon heat. Anticipating increased canopy dieback in hotter areas with redcedar will help improve community resilience and identify areas for protecting, monitoring, and managing western redcedar. Mitigating the impacts of urban heat, helping redcedar populations adapt, and protecting redcedar in cooler urban areas may be critical for conserving western redcedar for future generations.

Contact:  urbhort@uw.edu / 206-685-8033

Acknowledgements

Artwork by Speakthunder Berry, Puyallup, Nakota, Warm Springs

www.speakthunderart.com

Vendor & Information tables:
Windz of Change Alliance

Chatwin Books

 

Sponsors:

Chatwin Books

Sponsorship Opportunities

Steering Committee Members

Olivia Price Adult Education Supervisor | UW Botanic Gardens
Lowell Wyse Executive Director | Tacoma Tree Foundation
Kim Camara Windz of Change Alliance
Jeffrey Thomas (Muckleshoot, Warm Springs) Timber, Fish & Wildlife Director | Puyallup Tribe
Dr. Michelle Montgomery (Haliwa Saponi/Eastern Band Cherokee) Professor, Ethnic, Gender & Labor Studies, Assistant Director, Office of Undergraduate Education, Cohort Director for Muckleshoot Program,
Adjunct Professor, School of Education | University of Washington Tacoma
Celeste Staples Program Manager, Urban Climate Resilience Projects | Seattle Parks Foundation
Lauren Urgenson Urban Forestry Policy and Programs Manager | Office of Sustainability & Environment, City of Seattle
Hemalatha Velappan Graduate Student | University of Washington
Kathleen Wolf Research Social Scientist |University of Washington, College of the Environment

 

Past Symposia

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