What social and ecological impacts do trees have? Greening Research In Tacoma (GRIT)

The Tacoma Mall neighborhood is home to many residents, businesses, and industries. However, this active neighborhood also has more pavement and less tree canopy coverage than the city-wide averages, making it several degrees hotter. These characteristics also contribute to air pollution and polluted stormwater runoff that harm salmon, southern resident killer whales, and other wildlife. With the mall subarea designated as an urban growth center, it is expected that many more people will live there in the near future.
So how will this neighborhood add shade and reduce pavement while also building more housing and upgrading other infrastructure? And how will these changes impact the people who live there? These questions matter not only for South Tacoma, but also for all of Tacoma, Pierce County, and Western Washington. And we want to help crack the code!
The Greening Research in Tacoma project (or G.R.I.T.) is an effort to understand more about how human health and increased greening intersect in South Tacoma. This unique collaboration of the Tacoma Tree Foundation, The Nature Conservancy in Washington, the University of Washington, and the City of Tacoma is funded by an award from the Puget Sound Partnership and a grant from the U.S. Forest Service.
Learn more at tacomatreefoundation.org/grit
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