Picture a future that doesn't look like this: Urban Forest Project kickoff event to be hosted in tree-less plaza: Tacoma, WA

Come downtown and you shall see a plaza lovely themed of tree | Kits Merryman - The News Tribune

Come downtown and you shall see a plaza lovely themed of tree
The setting is the delicious irony of today’s “Speak for the Trees” Urban Forest Project kickoff.

A banner about urban forestry hangs in Tollefson Plaza in downtown Tacoma. Today, the Urban Forest Project will kick off “Speak for the Trees” here. Many types of artists, including poets, will gather to showcase tree-themed banners and speak about trees.

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 04/02/1112:05 am

The setting is the delicious irony of today’s “Speak for the Trees” Urban Forest Project kickoff.

It’s downtown Tacoma’s famously tree-free Tollefson Plaza.

From 1-4 p.m. it will be green to its concrete heart with an Arbor Day celebration featuring poets, artists, arborists, dignitaries – and free saplings.

Poets of all types are invited to compose verses, from the honorable to the humorous, about trees. Tacoma poet laureate emeritus Tammy Robacker will set the example with a poem she’s written for the event.

Chalk troops will enlist artists to imagine and draw an ephemeral forest.