Issaquah honored as a Tree City USA
April 23, 2013
Issaquah joined 81 other cities this year being recognized as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.
Issaquah has been recognized as a Tree City USA for 20 years.
Issaquah is a Tree City USA for the 19th year
April 17, 2012
The state Department of Natural Resources recognized Issaquah and 82 other Washington cities April 10 for efforts to protect and expand urban forests.
Issaquah is a 19-year Tree City USA. The honor from the Arbor Day Foundation is bestowed on cities dedicated to urban forestry. Washington celebrated Arbor Day on April 11.
The city is required to observe Arbor Day in order continue as a Tree City USA. Officials must also designate staff to care for trees, appoint a citizen tree board to advocate for community forestry, establish a tree ordinance and spend at least $2 per capita on tree care.
In Issaquah, the municipal Park Board handles tree-related issues.
The city Parks & Recreation Department is holding a community tree planting from 11 a.m. to noon April 21 at the Pickering Trail entrance, near 1730 10th Ave. N.W. Participants should check in from 9-11 a.m. at a community information booth near the trail entrance.
Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
Press Editorial
April 17, 2012
Give a nod to planet Earth
Arbor Day is April 21, followed by Earth Day on April 22. Both are an equal opportunity to show appreciation for the third rock from the sun.
The city Parks & Recreation Department will plant 150 trees along Issaquah Creek on Saturday in honor of Arbor Day. Just last week, the city earned Tree City USA status for the 19th year.
Earth Day gets a jumpstart in Issaquah on Thursday when Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon fry are released into Laughing Jacobs Creek. Public tours are available this weekend to see what happens to unrecycled garbage at the Cedar Hills Landfill in south Issaquah. Also south of the city limits, volunteers will mulch and weed the Log Cabin Natural Area along Issaquah Creek. Volunteers will do back-country trail work on Cougar Mountain.
City hosts community tree planting event for Arbor Day
April 10, 2012
Residents can join the city Parks & Recreation Department to plant trees and celebrate Arbor Day.
The parks department is holding a community tree-planting event April 21 along Issaquah Creek and the Pickering Trail. Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
Issaquah earns recognition as Tree City USA for 19th year
April 10, 2012
NEW — 3:45 p.m. April 10, 2012
The state Department of Natural Resources recognized Issaquah and 82 other Washington cities Tuesday for efforts to protect and expand urban forests.
Issaquah is a 19-year Tree City USA — the honor from the Arbor Day Foundation for cities dedicated to urban forestry.
Washington celebrates Arbor Day on April 11.
The city Parks & Recreation Department is holding a community tree planting event April 21 along Issaquah Creek and the Pickering Trail. Organizers collected more than 150 trees for participants to plant.
The city is required to observe Arbor Day in order continue as a Tree City USA. Officials must also designate staff to care for trees, appoint a citizen tree board to advocate for community forestry, establish a tree ordinance and spend at least $2 per capita on tree care.
In Issaquah, the municipal Park Board handles tree-related issues.
City receives grant to determine tree canopy coverage
May 31, 2011
The city is poised to deploy experts to determine how much land sits beneath leafy tree branches.
The most recent estimate — using 2006 aerial photography and collected in a 2008 tree canopy survey — pegged the tree canopy coverage inside city limits at 51 percent.
The percentage could vary between surveys, due to recent construction and the methods used in the earlier effort. The initial program did not meet regional standards for tree canopy surveys, but the measure did provide baseline tree canopy information for the city Comprehensive Plan, a key growth blueprint.
Issaquah received a $10,000 grant from the state Department of Natural Resources to fund the upcoming study. Municipal staffers intend to contribute $6,350 to the project through in-kind services. City Council members accepted the grant May 2.
City plants trees for Arbor Day, honors top environmentalists
April 26, 2011
Issaquah leaders gathered on a less-than-springlike day April 16 to observe Arbor Day and plant a grove to honor Ruth Kees and the community’s other top environmentalists.
Like the top environmental honor in the city, the grove is named for the late Kees. The bespectacled environmentalist fought for decades to protect Issaquah Creek, Tiger Mountain and the Lower Issaquah Valley Aquifer from development-related threats.
The grove is set amid hundreds of other saplings in city parkland along Issaquah Creek.
Former Councilman David Kappler plants a tree at the Ruth Kees Grove on April 16. By Margaret Macleod
Former Councilman David Kappler, plus environmentalists, Joanna Buehler, Ken Konigsmark and Janet Wall — all past Ruth Kees Environmental Award for a Sustainable Community recipients — participated in the planting. Overall, about 20 people joined Mayor Ava Frisinger and the honorees for the ceremony.
Together, city leaders and residents planted conifers to symbolize the 10 Ruth Kees award recipients on a gray morning at Squak Valley Park North south of downtown Issaquah.
Join city leaders to plant Ruth Kees Grove
April 12, 2011
Ruth Kees
Help city and state leaders dedicate the Ruth Kees Grove, and commemorate Arbor Day and the 20th anniversary of the state Department of Natural Resource Urban Forestry Program, at Squak Valley Park South.
Join city officials April 16 to plant 10 native conifers to honor the 10 recipients of the Ruth Kees Environmental Award for a Sustainable Community. The city has invited past recipients to the celebration.
Plans also call for the grove to include a trail, decorative rock features and a small patio or courtyard, featuring recipients’ names engraved on paver stones.
Past recipients received the honor for efforts to establish the Mountains to Sound Greenway, blaze trails in the Issaquah Alps and protect Issaquah waterways.
Ruth Kees, a longtime environmental activist, fought for decades to protect Issaquah Creek, Tiger Mountain and the Lower Issaquah Valley Aquifer. The award namesake received the inaugural honor in 2003.
Mayor highlights latest crop of Heritage Trees
October 23, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Oct. 23, 2010
Mayor Ava Frisinger has designated a trio of landmark trees as Heritage Trees — a distinction meant to reflect the age, size, historic significance and ecological value of the plants.
The trees include the giant sequoia at Tibbetts Valley Park, the Empress Tree at Cornick Park and the Oregon white oak at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.
City Park Board members developed the Heritage Tree Program to promote identification and recognition of trees that reflect the character of Issaquah. Every Heritage Tree is identified and recorded in a register maintained by the city Parks & Recreation Department.
Press Editorial
May 11, 2010
Issaquah marked by achievers, volunteers
A Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award nominations, environmental awards, Tree City USA, scholars, top athletes, best Retirement City…. are there still awards Issaquah and its citizens have yet to receive? The recognitions come from near and far, locally and nationally — and they just keep coming. Read more
