It's time to order trees for 2026!
We're just about half way there! We have given away 4,550 bare root trees in 2024 & 2025.
We will have 3,000 more trees available for our 2026 give away!
Why are we giving away trees?
The City of Tacoma has a tree canopy of around 20%, the lowest in the entire Puget Sound region, and less than other major US cities like New York (24%). This has an impact not just on birds and other wildlife, but on people too. Trees provide oxygen as well as absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They increase quality of life for people by providing shade, reducing urban temperatures as we experience the increased effects of climate change and studies have shown trees and nature improve mental health.
We are happy to be partnering with the City of Tacoma to proactively plant 10,000 trees over the next four years to kick start a significant increase in tree canopy in disadvantaged areas within the city.
Why Are Native Trees So Important?
Native trees and shrubs help maintain a proper ecological balance and support a greater biodiversity than non-native trees. They grow more successfully because we know they can thrive within our soil types and climate. Native species help maintain soil nutrients, balance native insect populations, and help provide seeds and fruit that our birds rely on for food throughout the year.
And they're just plain gorgeous in all 4 seasons!!!
What is a bare root tree? Go to planting and care instructions.
Trees available to order for 2026
(click or scroll to learn more)
Incense Cedar
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Appearance: Large conifer tree, grows to 70-110 ft. Produces both male and female flower blooms. Male blooms are small, pale yellow, and release pollen clouds in late winter. Female flowers are larger than male flowers and develop small brown cones on the end of branches that look like a duck bill with up to 4 winged seeds per cone.
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Growing Needs: Well drained, sandy or loamy soil, drought tolerant but adapts to both dry and slight wetness. Prefers full sun but can do partial shade, does not do well with wind. (According to WSU Clark County Extension, the Incense Cedar is native up to British Columbia. Does best in Cascade Mountains, lives 500-1000 years)
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Attracts: Seeds attract brown creepers, woodpeckers, nuthatches, kinglets, squirrels. Blooms attract pollinators and leaves are fragrant.
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Nesting and roosting tree for birds, host tree for caterpillars as well as butterfly and moth larvae.
Noble Fir
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Appearance: Large evergreen tree that grows to 180 to 270 feet tall. Flowers are cones that mature in early August.
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Growing Needs: Prefers well-drained soil, full sun to partial shade with at least 4 hours of full sun. Slow growing, sensitive to wind.
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Attracts: Chickadees, nuthatches, pine siskins, jays. Mammals include Douglas squirrel, mice and black bear.
Quaking Aspen
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Appearance: Medium deciduous tree that grows to 50 feet tall with shallow roots. Typically forms in clumps of trees. Bloom and flowers, catkins appear April to May before the leaves. Flowers on catkins produce cones that split open to release seeds attached to a white silky hair that spread via wind. Fall color, leaves turn bright yellow to red after first frost.
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Growing Needs: Can grow in a variety of soil conditions, including rocky soil, clay soil, rich soil, or nutrient deficient sandy soil, but grows best in rich, porous soils. Needs to be in the sun or slight shade, does not tolerate full shade.
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Attracts: ruffed grouse, chickadees, bluebirds, sapsuckers, downy woodpeckers, beavers, deer
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Host to 287 species of butterflies, moths and skippers which are essential resources for birds.
Pacific Dogwood
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Appearance: Medium height deciduous tree, grows to 50 feet. Blooms April to June, insignificant flowers, but has showy white bracts or petals, attract bees and butterflies. Berries are bright red in summer
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Growing Needs: Well drained acidic dry soil.
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Flowers Attract: bees and butterflies.
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Berries Attract: Northern Flickers, Hermit Thrush, Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Vireos, Purple Finches and Sapsuckers.
Vine Maple
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Appearance: Small deciduous tree, grows to 15 feet tall. Blooms are small reddish flowers in spring. Produces wing-like seed pods in the fall. Leaves turn into beautiful fall colors of yellow, orange and red before dropping.
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Growing Needs: Sun or shade, moist soil
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Flowers Attract: butterflies and bees
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Seeds Attract: Grosbeaks, woodpeckers, nuthatches, finches, quail and grouse. Deer, mountain beavers and beavers eat the wood and twigs.
Pacific Crabapple
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Appearance: Smaller deciduous tree that grows to 20-30 feet tall. Flowers in the spring can be white to pink and fruit is produced as small apple shaped fruits about the size of a golf ball that are present in late summer through fall.
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Growing Needs: Tolerates full sun to partial shade and prefers moist, but well drained soil.
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Attracts: Fruit attracts a large number of birds including grosbeaks, finches, towhees, sapsuckers, woodpeckers, and cedar waxwings. Also a favorite of squirrels and deer.
Western Serviceberry
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Appearance: Small deciduous tree that reaches up to 8-30 ft in height and width. Produces white flowers in the early spring followed by purple berries that last through the summer. This fruit is a particular favorite of many local birds.
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Growing Needs: Full sun to partial shade in moist to dry soil that has good drainage.
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Attracts: Flowers attract hummingbirds. Berries attract a variety of sparrows including juncos, chickadees, thrushes, towhees, bluebirds, cedar waxwings, tanagers, grosbeaks, finches, woodpeckers and crows.
Oceanspray
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Appearance: Deciduous shrub that grows to 15 feet tall and almost as wide. Arching branches produce blooms from June to August with white flowers in the shape of a plume. Flowers turn to seeds in the fall.
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Growing Needs: Partial shade, moist to dry well-drained soil
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Flowers Attract: Hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, insects
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Seeds Attract: Bushtits, chickadees, woodpeckers, crows, jays, sparrows
Pacific Ninebark
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Appearance: Deciduous, multi-stem shrub that grows to 15 feet tall and widens out as it grows in height. Develops brown, shedding bark. White ball-shaped flowers from May to June. Red papery fruits with yellow seeds in the fall.
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Growing Needs: Sun or shade, moist soil
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Flowers Attract: Butterflies and bees
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Berries Attract: Orioles, bluebirds, tanagers, towhees
Red-Flowering Currant
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Appearance: Deciduous shrub, grows 6-10 feet tall with green leaves. Blooms in early spring with beautiful bright red/pink tubular flowers and produces red/blue late summer berries.
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Growing Needs: Rocky, well-drained soil
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Host plant: moth larvae (leaves)
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Flowers Attract: Hummingbirds and butterflies
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Berries Attract: Robins, woodpeckers, jays, sparrows, bushtits, tanagers, and cedar waxwings. Fruit also eaten by coyotes, foxes, mountain beavers, raccoons, skunks, squirrels and chipmunks.
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Twigs and foliage browsed by deer and elk.
Russet Buffaloberry
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Appearance: Also referred to as soapberry or foamberry, buffaloberry is a deciduous shrub that grows 6-12 feet tall and wide. Elongated dark green leaves with "russeting" color of stems and bottoms of leaves. Clusters of bright red berries in late summer.
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Growing Needs: Buffaloberry fixes nitrogen, making it a good candidate for nutrient poor soils. Prefers moist but well-draining soils, and full sun to part shade locations.
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Berries Attract: Varied thrushes, robins, finches, woodpeckers, chestnut-backed chickadees, cedar waxwings and Steller's jays. Berries may stay viable on the shrub well into the late fall and early winter and may sweeten after the first frost.
Baldhip Rose
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Appearance: Less thorny variety of native rose that grows 5-10 feet tall and wide. Will grow into a natural hedgerow if left to grow. Also called Dwarf Rose, or Little Rose, it is the smallest and daintiest of the local native wild roses. Flowers are fragrant and pale pink, rose hips are "bald" and may remain as a food source well into winter.
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Growing Needs: Moist to dry soil, full sun to partial shade.
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Flowers Attract: Pollinators and butterflies
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Hips Attract: Robins, bluebirds, juncos, grouse, thrushes, juncos and grosbeaks. Also eaten by bear, deer, coyote, and rabbits.
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Provides important roosting and nesting habitat for local birds
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Leaves are a favorite building material for leaf-cutter bees.
Bare Root Tree Planting Care and Instructions (PDF)
(used by permission from the Arbor Day Foundation)