BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The City of Bellingham has completed a draft for an “urban forest plan” and wants your feedback on it.

An urban forest is defined as containing all of the natural and cultural elements in a city or community, including trees, soil, and related processes.

The draft plan cites a large tree population in a city as having many benefits for the community, from regulating environmental conditions to lowering health costs for residents.

The plan has the ultimate goal of 45% tree canopy throughout the city by 2050. To achieve this goal, an estimated 9,000 trees would need to be planted each year.

Public Works’ Habitat and Restoration Manager Analiese Burns spoke about the status of the plan in an exhaustive presentation during a committee meeting Monday afternoon.

“Talking about trees, planting more trees really is fulfilling our Climate Action Plan goals,” Burns said during the presentation. She mentions that the Climate Action Plan has a requirement that the city work to sequester carbon.

“We do that in part by protecting and conserving our forests which includes our street trees and looking at our landscape practices and where we restore degraded lands,” Burns said.

To provide feedback, there is a link to a survey on Engage Bellingham’s website.