Imagine a hot summer day walking downtown along SW 152nd Street versus walking along SW 153rd Street – which street would you prefer to be on? Trees make SW 152nd Street more walkable and typically more people shop at businesses with trees.
Trees provide us with many benefits that we rely on in our daily lives. They help to clean the water and the shade helps keep Burien cool when we experience extreme heat. They help to remove pollutants from the air, including those from cars and airplanes. Burien’s proximity to the airport and large highways means residents and people who work here are heavily impacted by air pollutants. These areas of the city are particularly vulnerable due to a combination of factors such as social marginalization, disease, pollution, and natural hazards.
Like many cities, trees are not equitably distributed across Burien, meaning not everyone has access to the important benefits trees provide. These are potential areas for environmental justice initiatives because of factors such as increased cancer risk, as well as demographic factors such as high economic and racial diversity, and percentage of elderly residents. Often the people that need the benefits the most are furthest from green spaces and trees. There are several online tools to explore these priority areas, including the Tree Equity Score.
Residents have long recognized the importance of trees in Burien, and trees have been protected by the Burien City Council through a variety of rules since the early 2000s. These rules help protect trees in wetlands, streams, shorelines, and on public property. The protection of trees and enforcement of these rules has been more consistent with the addition of an urban forest planner and updated regulations.
Updated tree regulations went into effect in October 2022 and new fines were implemented in March 2023. The revised regulations help support the goal of having 40 percent tree canopy cover equitably distributed across Burien by 2038. To reach this goal, we need to plant approximately 39,000 trees; this is assuming that we are not removing any trees.
This goal was established through Burien City Council’s adoption of the Green Burien Urban Forest Stewardship Plan. This tree code also supports initiatives in the Comprehensive Plan and Burien Climate Action Plan. With input from residents, developers, and arborists, this code was designed to strike a balance between the need for trees and increased housing density. We have been working to inform the public about existing and new regulations regularly since fall 2022, by attending in-person events, hosting webinars, and mailing flyers in three different languages to residents.
Since 2022, there have been 25 tree-related violations that have been identified and addressed through enforcement actions. Of these cases, 12 occurred in critical areas such as steep slopes, streams, and wetlands. There have been 22 cases were on private property, and three in public rights-of-way. Currently, 14 of these cases have been closed and a total of $58,650 in fines has been assessed. Additionally, tree replacement and retroactive permits were required to help protect and grow our urban forest. While we only have a couple years of data, we are hoping that continued education will lead to a decline in code enforcement related to trees over time.
While a single tree removed may seem like an innocent act, these trees might be hundreds of years old when they are removed and often have hundreds more years to live. While some trees need to come down for development or due to safety concerns, if every homeowner removed a tree on their property we would have a big decline in our tree canopy. We understand that leaf pickup can be hard work and views are nice; however, the costs to maintain the trees are small in comparison to the costs of replacement. Many of these trees cannot be replaced in our lifetime or even often in our children’s lifetime. The best way to grow our tree canopy cover is through the retention of the large existing trees that are currently providing us with all the benefits we require to live.
Beyond regulations we are working on several things to improve the equitable distribution of trees in Burien. We are having more conversations around trees, providing information on best management practices, and planning for equitably increasing the tree canopy cover. When trees cannot be planted in the same location, we can collect a payment for those trees and plan to use this money to help plant trees in the areas that need them the most. There will also be a tree giveaway in the fall of 2025 to provide people with free trees to plant in their yard.
Remember to call before you cut! If you have any questions about the regulations please check out our tree regulations page online at burienwa.gov/TreeRegulations or reach out to planning@burienwa.gov. Please let us know if you have ideas or feedback!
