Free Trees Available This Saturday at Magnuson Park

Jana, a certified arborist with the City's' reLeaf program, sent out email that the City of Seattle’s Trees for Neighborhoods program has a number of trees that were unclaimed by original applicants to the program a few weeks ago and are now available for free on a first-come, first served basis this Saturday, from 10– 2pm at the EarthCorps nursery in Magnuson Park (6310 NE 74th Street, Seattle).

Terms of eligibility:

· You must be a Seattle resident and plant the trees on your property.
· Trees should be planted in your yard. In order to plant street trees, you must have a permit from SDOT. Information on street tree permits can be found here.
· Participants new to the program must go through a brief, 15-minute planting training in order to receive trees.
· There is a 4-tree per household limit.
· Trees are your property and not the City of Seattle’s – you must agree to care for the trees yourself.

Available species:

- Little gem magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little gem’)
- Serviceberry* (Amelanchier arborea )
- Italian plum* (fruiting)
- Dogwood* (Cornus x ‘Venus’)
- Shore pine (Pinus contorta)
- Katsura* (Cercidiphyllum japonicum)
- Western red cedar (Thuja plicata ‘Excelsa’)
- Red oak* (Quercus rubra)
- Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

These trees are bare root, rather than in pots. Bare root trees easier to move, tend to be healthier and have fewer root problems than potted trees; however they will need to be planted the same day you receive them. Bare root trees will dry out and die quickly if left unplanted.  More information on these species can be found here.

To check on the availability of trees before going to Magnuson, call (206) 793-2454. The voicemail message will be updated at 11:00, 12:00 and 1:00 with current species availability.

The nursery is in Magnuson Park, just east of Hangar 30 and behind the building called “the Brig” that houses Outdoors for All and Gymboree. Go in the main entrance at NE 74th St., drive past the small ‘guard station’ under the brick archway and continue straight east towards the dog park until the 4-way stop sign.  Turn left at that intersection and drive north towards the chain link fence, then turn right by the row of cedar trees to drive into a smaller parking lot behind the Brig. You will see the table and canopy set up next to the nursery.