Whatcom Million Trees Project

06/25/2026

We're looking forward to being a part of this exciting event this weekend!

06/23/2026

Thank you and congratulations to the seniors in WWU’s Electrical & Computer Engineering Capstone course who graduated this month! Five of these students spent their senior years working with WMTP to develop foundational components of a remote wildfire sensor. They made great strides in battery management; detecting and distinguishing local wildfire smoke from that of neighboring fires; and developing sensors that can detect thermal indicators of wildfire ignition before small fires grow into larger threats. There is still work to do, and we hope their efforts will be continued by future students. We hope to create an open-source wildfire sensor that can quickly identify wildfire in Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas. Thank you, EE/CE students and professors, for working with us to improve wildfire detection in an era of increasing wildfire threat!

06/19/2026

Thank you, City of Bellingham Planning Commission, for giving staff more time to improve the Landmark Tree Ordinance. Our values should drive our policy, and this reprieve gives City staff time to align them. We have recently seen poorly designed projects move forward to the terrible detriment of our natural areas because the rules that should have stopped them were not strong enough. We're eager to support the Planning and Community Development Office's work to ensure that doesn't happen again. Thanks, everyone, for submitting your comments and working to ensure Bellingham isn't a city where affordable housing is pitted against protecting trees.

06/18/2026

Thank you to the 19 hard-working volunteers who braved a very warm Sunday afternoon to remove ivy from Northridge Park with us! Despite the heat, they made quick work of clearing two large patches of ivy in the park -- amounting to about 108 cubic feet of ivy removed -- and freed 20 trees. Amazing!!
Shout-out to Team WECU and Team Barkley Regal Cinema for choosing this event for their community service work! We're grateful for these community partnerships!

As Northridge visitors and neighbors know, trees make this hilltop park a wonderful shady oasis during these warm spells! Now they can continue to do so for several more years before ivy poses a threat again. You rock, volunteers!

All of this ivy spilled over from neighboring yards, and without it being removed from yards, it will continue to grow back. If you own property near a park or green-way and have ivy growing in your yard, please consider aiding these sterling community efforts to preserve trees by removing your ivy. Many plants can provide similar ground cover and beautification to your yard without posing a threat to the health of the urban forests we all share. Learn how at https://whatcommilliontrees.org/tree-projects/tree-protection/english-ivy-removal/

Thank you to for providing ivy pick-up and composting!

06/17/2026

Bellingham’s Landmark Tree Ordinance (LTO) will have a public hearing at this Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting at 6pm in City Council Chambers.

At February’s Planning Commission meeting, city staff listed some of the problems they had identified in the interim ordinance, such as not including enough clarity in the ordinance language and a need to improve the application process. Unfortunately, the ordinance the Planning Commission will hear on Thursday doesn’t address these issues.

We need to stand up and encourage Bellingham to do better to protect our mature trees, to make it easier to provide affordable housing, and to live up to our values. Other cities have achieved this, and so can we! 🌲🏡🌳

If you would like to comment on this ordinance, follow the guidelines linked in the comments. If you’re unable to attend or comment before Thursday, please reach out to your city council representatives.

06/08/2026

Native forest communities thrive on diversity. Human communities do too.

At WMTP, we feel lucky and grateful to be part of a diverse community, and we want to sing it out from every mountain top during Pride Month. When a forest is forced into a monoculture, it becomes vulnerable to disease. When a forest is allowed to express its diversity, it flourishes, adapts, and endures. May we all feel free to be who we are and to love who we love.

We joyfully celebrate the vitality of difference. We see you, we welcome you, and we believe in you. We love you! And we couldn’t be prouder.

photo credit: heidi_ziller (pixabay.com)

06/05/2026

Thanks to Sehome High School students and staff and Bellingham Parks and Recreation for partnering with us for an awesome ivy removal work party at Storybrook Park on Tuesday! Nearing 80 degrees F, it was a great day to appreciate the benefits of trees, and show our appreciation by helping them out!

Bellingham's newest park has a lot of ivy threatening the lives of trees there. These trees are so needed for shade as we go into summer when the park will see both more visitors and more heat 🥵.

Students on Tuesday worked together and made a good dent in the ivy there, thoroughly freeing 10 mature trees and pulling out 28 cubic feet of ivy vines. The city hauled the removed ivy away for industrial composting. Wonderful work, everyone!

06/03/2026

On Sunday we partnered with WWU L.E.A.D. seminar students and community volunteers to remove ivy along the South Bay Trail just north of Boulevard Park. Though the slope was challenging, they succeeded in freeing three trees and removed over 67 cubic feet of ivy vines! Trees on both sides of this coastal green way make the trail a cool and shady green tunnel for walkers, joggers, and cyclists to enjoy even when it's very warm. Thanks to these volunteers' efforts, ivy is now less of an immediate threat to the trees there! Great work, everyone!

You, too, can help save trees from ivy this summer! Sign up at https://whatcommilliontrees.org/volunteer/ -parties

06/03/2026

Like it or not, Congress holds the power to decide how our federal forests are managed. On Wednesday, June 3rd at 5pm, join LFDC’s Andy Shoemaker and the John Muir Project’s D.C.-based Policy and Advocacy Director Jenn Mamola for an hour-long workshop exploring how the public can effectively get their message across to their representatives in Congress. This session offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Washington D.C. works, along with practical strategies for making your voice heard in defense of the people, plants and animals that rely on responsible stewardship of healthy, intact federal forests.

To register, visit wlfdc.org/events

05/29/2026

Our partnership with WTA and Whatcom Land Trust to preserve local forested lands and wetlands is continuing! To date, these efforts have resulted in the preservation of 66 acres in Whatcom County, with the purchase of 20 additional acres planned this year. 🌲🌲🌲

Whatcom Transportation Authority is reducing carbon by transforming its fixed-route fleet. The transformation began with the purchase of eight hybrid-electric buses back in 2012. Since then, WTA has purchased 11 more hybrid-electric buses and 12 electric buses. Thanks to grants from the Federal Transit Administration, with support from our members in Congress, WTA will order an additional 17 hybrid-electric buses in the next couple of years.
Link in comments.