October - December 2024: A Critical Moment for our Forest
The Port of Seattle will unveil its “Sustainable” Airport Master Plan on Oct 21, 2024
The plan, along with a draft Environmental Assessment for 31 (yes, thirty-one) industrial development projects in our near-airport neighborhoods, will be available for public review on October 21.
These projects would significantly expand the airport and its cargo handling infrastructure - at the expense of our health-protecting urban forest. The Defenders estimate that about 80 football fields-worth of our neighborhood forest are at risk of being replaced with roads, cargo warehouses, parking lots, a big new terminal, and more.
The public comment period is from October 21, 2024, through December 5, 2024. As of early October, the Port’s website appears to have been down for a week or more.
This is a critical time for the public to support our neighborhood forest. More information in the Defender’s Oct. newsletter HERE.
Help stop destruction of 500 trees & construction of 402,380 sq. ft. industrial building in Des Moines neighborhood
Des Moines residents have raised funds, organized, and filed a challenge to a finding by the city of Des Moines that a 402,000+ square foot industrial building and accompanying parking lot set in a densely populated neighborhood on top of existing forestland used as a residential …. is non-significant. The affected area is shown on the map above as “Des Moines Creek West.”
Two back-to-back public meetings will be held to review this project on Oct 18, 2024.
Please consider showing up to call for saving these health-protecting trees. More info in the Defender’s Oct. newsletter HERE.
Stay tuned!
What are we defending?
Trees protect people from pollution that harms health and shortens lives near SeaTac Airport. Public Health Seattle & King County has documented this connection and recommends increasing green space and trees here to protect residents.
The Port of Seattle knows of these findings. It also knows that trees protect residents from deadly climate change impacts, having committed, for that reason, to restoring forests and reducing sprawl.
Then why do its plans include recommendations to replace an estimated 110 acres of forest (an area of about 100 football fields) with even more heat and pollution-generating industrial development in neighborhoods within two miles of the airport?
Community plans from the 1970s and 80s show that most of this land was set aside for parks and nature preserves in order to buffer residents from airport impacts after airport expansion made thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods uninhabitable. North SeaTac Park had especially protected status and was created, according to the FAA, “to compensate area residents for cumulative airport impacts.” (Photo by Karen Nicol)
A critical public health task for our region - saving the towering old trees of the Highline forest, restoring its canopy to levels healthy for people and wildlife, and ensuring its survival through future droughts and heat - is not yet on this region’s public policy agenda. Let’s put it there.
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