“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.”
A Tree Census
In Seattle, our majestic trees are poems on our civic sky that connect us to history, inspire us, and call on us to honor our duty as stewards of this place. Very few cities in the world have trees like ours. Yet, one by one, these great trees are being cut down. One by one, the pages of Seattle’s book of poems are being torn out and thrown away.
The name of the campaign comes from the 2016 Seattle Tree Canopy Cover report, which noted that there were only 6,338 trees with a trunk diameter of 30 inches and greater left in the city. The Last 6000 campaign is an effort to find and document these majestic trees.
Seattle and its residents have faced and overcome many challenges as an ever-evolving city. The years 2020 and 2021 brought a life-threatening pandemic, economic turmoil, and renewed efforts for racial justice and fair treatment. Today, we face a climate emergency and the need for increased housing, especially affordable housing. We hope Seattle’s majestic trees can be a source of strength, endurance, and wisdom in these times.
In 2022, groups of neighbors came together to protect a large Western Red Cedar in South Seattle, a large Horse Chestnut tree in West Seattle, and large Sweetgum trees on Aurora Avenue in North Seattle. In 2023, neighbors, activists, and the Snoqualmie Tribe came together to protect a 200-year-old Western Red Cedar in the Wedgwood neighborhood – named Luma by its defenders - from being destroyed by a developer.
Unfortunately, in the drive to increase housing and under developer pressure, the city made the decision in May 2023 to remove all protections for large trees like Luma during development. We must advocate for this flaw to be fixed and move ahead with housing development while preserving large trees when possible.
We are pleased to see the ongoing increase in followers on our Instagram account. Over 3,100 people are now following the Last 6000 Campaign. Research showed that in the three months ending in August 2024, there was an Instagram posting reach of over 11,000, with an additional reach of 6,100 through our auxiliary Facebook account.
Our Last 6000 Campaign website had over 4,500 unique visitors in 2023 alone, adding to the 10,000 unique visitors that visited the site before 2023 and since the campaign’s beginning. Another 1,300 unique visitors have viewed the website in the first six months of 2024.
Volunteers have continued to submit majestic trees to our census. We now highlight select majestic trees on a dedicated website page.
Our Goal
The campaign officially launched on April 1, 2019 and due to popular demand we continue to accept information on majestic trees. Our focus currently is to analyze and report the key points of our census findings to community groups and create neighborhood documentation of the majestic trees.
Community Engagement
In addition to creating our tree census, we aim to create community engagement around, and awareness of, these special trees in our midst. We invite you to join us! It's easy. Send us photographs of and data about the majestic trees that live in your neighborhood.
Volunteers
Our goal is to gather, then report the number, location and status of Seattle's majestic trees. There are two ways to help:
The main way you can help is to find and send us data on the majestic trees you encounter. We will then document the trees and important information about them. Another way to help is to keep an eye out for our recommended action alert items so that our large trees can have a voice when it is needed.
Have you located a majestic tree, or a few, in your neighborhood or around the city? Share them with us! We will count them and present the information in community forums.
The simplest way to send us your tree information is to enter it directly via our Google Form:
If you need to send your data to The Last 6000 via email instead, download and complete the Input Form via button below. Then send it to us here.