Seattle, a Generation Restoration role model city, enabled restoration across 230 park locations throughout the city through The Green Seattle Partnership. Strong social components link restoration efforts with job skills training, helping to strengthen a local green economy, and a galvanized public has leveraged significant additional funding for restoration work.

About the city

Seattle has a population of approximately 800,000 people, while its metro area is home to approximately 4.1 million residents. It is located in the state of Washington in the northwest of the United States, on the Puget Sound, which connects to the Pacific Ocean. Seattle has a mild, temperate climate characterized by rainy winters and drier summers. It is a major tech hub that houses the headquarters of multiple big technology companies, among other industries.

Local challenges

Due to Seattle’s coastal location and rainy climate, coastal and hydrological hazards pose threats to the city. Seattle is facing an increase in coastal flooding, and low-lying urban areas are also experiencing increased flood hazards. Furthermore, Seattle is experiencing increased urban temperatures and annual air pollution impacts from wildfire smoke, both of which pose major threats to human health. These climate impacts have been exacerbated by the city’s industrialization and historic disinvestment, leading to unequal access to resources to withstand and adapt to climate threats. 

How the city leads in restoration

Seattle Parks and Recreation leads in restoration through the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP), an initiative launched in 2005 with the dual goals of restoring and maintaining the forested parklands and designated natural areas of Seattle, and expanding and galvanizing an informed, involved, and active community around forest restoration and stewardship. The Green Seattle Partnership is built on an innovative model of collaboration that unites city agencies, nonprofits, businesses, schools, and thousands of volunteers in caring for forested parklands across Seattle. This model has created a network of people and organizations that are building reciprocal relationships with natural areas and forested parks, taking care of the forest so that it will take care of them in return. 

Restoration sites are located across 230 parks throughout Seattle, and range in size from less than an acre to over 500 acres. The Green Seattle Partnership uses target systems to assess restoration progress, looking at seven primary attributes: native tree canopy cover, invasive weed cover, number and diversity of new seedlings in the understory (the layer of vegetation in a forest, woodland, or jungle that grows beneath the main canopy of trees but above the forest floor), native understory cover and diversity, and invasive tree presence. 

Forest restoration programming through the Green Seattle Partnership strengthens community cohesion by offering volunteer stewardship events that introduce neighbors to one another and build shared commitments to park spaces. The Green Seattle Partnership also provides paid job skills training for youth that integrates social and emotional curriculum, peer-to-peer learning, and ecological restoration skills building. This work, along with the broader Green Seattle Partnership effort, aims to build paid jobs in a green economy.

Education is a central feature in the Green Seattle Partnership’s programming. Educational workshops for volunteers, staff, and the general public share land care knowledge while improving an ecology ethos. Topics covered include pollinators in the forest, bird nesting considerations for restoration events, and winter plant identification. The Green Seattle Partnership also works extensively with local schools to introduce environmental stewardship programming.

Restoration actions are also improving human health through access to nature and proximity to ecosystem services. Furthermore, the partnership endeavors to support Native livelihoods and culture alongside ecological restoration efforts. Through a relationship with an Indigenous-led organization that was working at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, the partnership provided Native youth and adults with paid job-training opportunities focused on traditional teachings of reciprocity and land stewardship alongside career exploration opportunities. 

The partnership model has also proven to be a powerful mechanism for diversifying investment and expanding local funding streams. This includes partner organizations and community groups who were motivated through their unique missions to pursue grant funding and are often able to leverage funding provided by the city. Furthermore, engaging community members has resulted in significant individual donations. As an example, Seward Park has received approximately $1.7 million from an anonymous private donation to move forward forest health actions. The partnership ethos has also translated to cross-agency work, such as through collaboration with Seattle Public Utilities to contribute to floodplain restoration projects that are accessing additional sources of local, state, and federal funding sources.

The Green Seattle Partnerships model has effectively multiplied the capacity of the Seattle Parks and Recreation department to implement both ecological restoration and community programming. Since its establishment, thirteen other municipalities and one county in the region have adopted the model. Key elements of the model include a 20-year strategic planning process to prioritize and guide natural area restoration programming, early forest assessment work, and the dual goal of community engagement alongside restoration. 

Highlight impact metrics

Since the inception of the Green Seattle Partnership in 2005:

  • 170+ active volunteer Forest Stewards leading events in their neighborhood parks, with 494 Forest Stewards trained since 2005 and 71 Stewards accomplishing 10 years of service 
  • 1,453,460 total volunteer hours, with 23% of hours provided by youth 
  • 1,537,087 total native plants planted, including 357,786 trees 
  • 62,249 trees freed from climbing vines
  • 2,052 acres in active restoration

In 2025 alone:

  • 22 new acres enrolled in restoration and 313 acres of ongoing forest caregiving
  • 120 parks saw restoration activity
  • 59,487 native plants planted, including 6,860 trees 
  • 63% of activities concentrated in neighborhoods with the highest need 
  • 45,413 volunteer hours, with $1,893,722 volunteer time invested in Seattle’s natural area parks
  • 1,512 community stewardship events held
  • 141 participants in the paid job pathways program, including 59% under 18 years old 
  • 13% volunteer hours by youth, 48 schools engaged in land care work 
  • 2 knowledge sharing workshops
  • 171 Active Forest Stewards

Role Model City

City Map

Ecosystem Types

Forests, Oceans and coasts and Urban areas

Climate, Biodiversity, and Pollution Risks Addressed

  • Extreme temperatures
  • Wildfires
  • Extreme precipitation / flooding
  • Habitat destruction
  • Invasive species
  • Species loss / extinction
  • Ecosystem degradation
  • Air pollution
  • Soil contamination

Restoration Techniques Applied

  • Ecological connectivity
  • Floodplain restoration
  • Invasive species control
  • Native species
  • Pollinator support
  • Riverbank restoration
  • Tree planting
  • Urban forests

Beyond restoration

Seattle champions holistic planning approaches for many of its policy priorities. The 2025 One Seattle Plan is a comprehensive plan that addresses climate impacts through green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, expanded access to public space and maximized tree canopies, and sustainable land practices that promote healthy soil and enhance water absorption. Similarly, the updated 2024 Food Action Plan represents another cross-sectoral plan and roadmap for advancing interrelated goals of racial and social justice, food security and access, health, environmental sustainability, and economic development through activities such as urban farms, community gardens, and composting programs.

Building on the Green Seattle Partnership’s success, Seattle has formalized many of its principles in its Urban Forest Management Plan, developed collaboratively through multiple departments and the Urban Forestry Commission. In addition, Seattle Parks and Recreation is expanding pollinator habitat and creating connections to support the birds and insects that live in and pass through the city. Seattle is a designated “Bee City USA”, meaning that it has committed to protecting pollinators through its land management, and has signed on to both the Migratory Bird Treaty and the C40 Cities Urban Nature Declaration.

Green Seattle Partnership also collaborates nationally through the Forests in Cities Network, a group developed by the New York City-based Natural Area Conservancy to promote and advance healthy forested natural areas in cities across the United States through science, management, partnerships, and communications. In this network, Seattle contributes data, monitoring, restoration work, and community-engagement practices with other cities. 

What other cities can learn

According to the Green Seattle Partnership, network-building is key for advancing urban restoration: 

  • Recognize and prioritize the value of building a network. Activated community members, partnering organizations, and adjacent government agencies have been critical to the continued success of the Green Seattle Partnership. Both the Green Cities Network locally and the Forest in Cities Network nationally have brought funding and other capacity building to Seattle. Although a champion within city government was an important part of our origin story, our longevity comes from the broad team of people supporting each other and building creative solutions together.

Further resources