Tumwater tree board moves forward on urban forester hire, grant programs and a name change

TUMWATER, Wash. — The Tumwater Tree Board on Jan. 13 discussed hiring an Urban Forester paid through a U.S. Forest Service grant, reviewed grant-funded programs meant to benefit disadvantaged neighborhoods, and voted to pursue changing its name to the Urban Forestry Advisory Board.

City staff member Tanya, the board’s tree program lead, told members the Urban Forester position “is now posted. It's live. We've already received 1 applicant,” and that the city will conduct its first review of applications in early February. Tanya said the position’s salary “starts at $80,000 and goes up to $100 something,” and that the city aims to have an offer accepted by the end of the quarter to meet grant milestones.

Those grant milestones include a Canopy Equity Program (milestone 3) intended to distribute roughly 250 trees with establishment materials to disadvantaged neighborhoods, and a tree-assessment assistance effort (milestone 4) that would provide about 50 pro bono tree-health assessments to qualifying residents, Tanya said. A later milestone (milestone 5) would fund a small street-tree trimming grant for low- and moderate-income residents, planned for 2027.

Why it matters: the U.S. Forest Service–funded program and linked River Network contract guide how the new Urban Forester will allocate time and services across the city. Tanya said the grant requires recordkeeping showing that about 50% of the Urban Forester’s time be spent in federally…