Greening Research in Tacoma Project (G.R.I.T.)

Researchers: Ailene Ettinger, Gregory Bratman, Phil Levin

The Tacoma Mall neighborhood is home to many residents, businesses, and industries. However, this active neighborhood also has more pavement and less tree canopy coverage than the city-wide averages, making it several degrees hotter. These characteristics also contribute to air pollution and polluted stormwater runoff that harm salmon, Southern Resident killer whales, and other wildlife. With the mall subarea designated as an urban growth center, it is expected that many more people will live there in the near future.

So how will this neighborhood add shade and reduce pavement while also building more housing and upgrading other infrastructure? And how will these changes impact the people who live there? These questions matter not only for South Tacoma, but also for all of Tacoma, Pierce County, and Western Washington. And we want to help crack the code!

The Greening Research in Tacoma project (or G.R.I.T.) is an effort to understand more about how human health and increased greening intersect in South Tacoma. This unique collaboration of the Tacoma Tree Foundation, The Nature Conservancy in Washington, the University of Washington, and the City of Tacoma is funded by an award from the Puget Sound Partnership and a grant from the U.S. Forest Service.

Get Involved

South Tacoma residents can participate in community interviews by contacting the research team at greeningresearch@uw.edu or (425) 998-6752.

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• Why tree coverage matters as temperatures rise in Puget Sound (May 11, 2023)
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• Green Blocks Boosts Tacoma Neighborhoods One Tree at a Time (February 1, 2023)
• One Million Trees (January 25, 2023)
• Greening Research in Tacoma (GRIT) Project on Human Wellbeing (January 17, 2023)
• What Happens In Our Urban Neighborhoods When There’s A Heat Wave? (September 5, 2022)
• Hitting the Pavement to Track Temperature in Tacoma (August 23, 2022)
• Tacoma Greening Project (GRIT) Wants Community Input On Trees (July 5, 2022)
• Partners are Working to Build GRIT in ‘Grit City’ (April 20, 2022)