The 2023 Spring Urban Tree Sale opened last month runs until March 31st. We offer 11 different tree varieties for as low as $10 per tree.

The sale is limited to residents in the cities of Tacoma and Puyallup and Unincorporated Pierce County. Customers can buy up to three trees each time Pierce Conservation District holds a sale, for a total of up to 6 trees per property.

With the purchase of a tree customers also receive a free educational workshop and a slow-release watering bucket.

The Urban Tree Sale is hosted by our Water Quality team as part of our Green Stormwater program in partnership with cities of Tacoma and Puyallup and Pierce County.

Visit the  Urban Tree Sale website to learn more.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Green Puyallup Day 2022!

On Green Puyallup Day volunteers celebrate our parks and urban greenspaces by planting and protecting native plant species. Our parks are places that we often take for granted, so it feels very special to build community while helping to improve these community gathering spaces. 

The energy of our volunteers means that the four habitat stewardship sites look fantastic, but we’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.

• 40 volunteers 
• 120  volunteer hours 
• 70 plants installed
•  4 urban greenspaces improved

It is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when working in restoration: another day another native plant installation or Himalayan blackberry bush vanquished. That is, until we get the chance to share the work we do to an excited group of volunteers. Thank you for the incredible reminder of the importance of working in community.

October is peak planting season in the Pacific Northwest, which means our Water Quality team is busy working with community partners on green stormwater projects. This year, we celebrated both Green Tacoma Day (on Oct 8^th) and Orca Recovery Day (on Oct 9^th) with volunteers and neighbors in Central Tacoma.

After removing 3,000 square feet of pavement from a parking lot at Peck Fields, the Central Neighborhood Council, Metro Parks Tacoma, and PCD finished transforming this space from gray to green as part of Green Tacoma Day. With 50 volunteers, we planted more than 400 plants, including urban trees, native pollinator plants, and a new rain garden, which will capture and clean polluted runoff. Volunteers also cleared out tons of invasive blackberries to give our new plants plenty of room to grow.

One weekend later, we partnered up with 35 volunteers in the Hilltop at the Oasis of Hope. Over the last year, PCD has worked with the Center and volunteers to remove blackberries that were taking over their rain garden. This year, the rain garden was ready for new plants, and we added over 300 native and pollinator-friendly plants that will fill the rain garden with a diverse and healthy plant community. 

Both events were not just great because of the new plants in the ground; they were also celebrations of how individuals and communities can make a tangible difference. Both projects were put forward by community members who wanted to create more green spaces in their neighborhoods. Both rain gardens also collect stormwater runoff from parking lots. These gardens clean this polluted runoff and keep it out of Puget Sound and away from orcas. By working together, neighbors were able to take small steps that add up to a big difference.

PCD regularly has volunteer events all over the county. You can always find upcoming events and opportunities here on our volunteer page.