We Love Our Trees

Identify Exceptional Trees & Places to Plant more Trees

In Bellevue, trees are an important part of what makes our us a “city in a park.” To keep our city green as our city grows, we encourage preserving mature trees and planting new trees. In addition to showing our city’s character, trees provide essential, measurable services to our community including cleaner air, stormwater management, summer cooling, reductions in crime, health benefits (like better mental and cardiovascular health), and more.

As we implement natural systems goals (40% canopy in every neighborhood) from our updated Environmental Stewardship Plan, we need your help. You are the experts in your neighborhood. Is there a street that would especially benefit from street trees in your neighborhood? Or maybe a school or park that needs more trees? Or maybe there is a tree with special meaning in your community?

To better plant and preserve, we need your help!

Suggest a Place to Plant Trees

Help us identify places on public property where we can plant more trees. We are looking for suggestions on places to add trees along streets, in parks, and on publicly-owned properties like schools. Tell us how the place you suggest would benefit from tree planting. (We’d love to see photos of where you think trees should go!)

Nominate a Heritage Tree

Bellevue's Heritage Tree program is a voluntary program that recognizes exceptional trees in our community. Heritage Tree programs recognize trees that are very old, very large, or have community histories or stories. We want you to tell us (and show us with a photo!) what makes these trees important to our community.

How this data will be used:

Responses will be stored and used to inform tree planting this year and into the future. Tree planting efforts may be with through city projects like Great Neighborhoods, Neighborhood Enhancement Program, street maintenance, pedestrian improvements, and so on.

Submissions with be evaluated by staff, with support from volunteers. Tree planting locations will be evaluated to gather additional information on planting area conditions and Heritage Trees will be screened for health, owner consent, exceptional qualities, etc.

To get more involved:

If you are interested in tree planting on private property, we will be hosting a tree giveaway in autumn of 2021. The deadline to apply has past, but look out for our 2022 giveaway announcement in the spring. Sign up for our trees newsletter to be notified.

If you are interested in getting more involved, consider becoming a volunteer Neighborhood Tree Ambassador. Applications are accepted during the first few months of the year