The Green Seattle Partnership brings organizations and individuals across the city together to collaborate on restoring and maintaining Seattle’s greenspaces. It may be surprising to some people that our forest restoration efforts can be very “online” work—we work together daily on virtual meetings, emails, reporting, ordering supplies, and so on. Our “outside” work often happens in apart from each other. For partner organizations, this can mean that they run their own programs, at their own work sites without the chance to interface on the land.
Our staff understand the magic that land stewardship plays in community building. There’s nothing quite like getting your hands dirty, pulling weeds, and working the land together to cultivate community. So, what better way is there to build partnership among restoration organizations than to do the kind of work that they collectively organize and facilitate?
Since 2025, GSP has organized Relational Land Care events for partner staff members to connect across organizations once per quarter. One partner hosts the event at their work site, leads the restoration work, and facilitates a team-building activity.
The most recent Relational Land Care event was hosted this past September by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Natural Area Crew (NAC) at Genesee Park’s Starflower Mounds restoration sites. The NAC is always working hard behind the scenes to support partner organizations, but they are rarely in the spotlight having their projects supported and appreciated in return. This event served as a chance to give NAC a hand and offer our partners an opportunity to get to know them better.
Members of EarthCorps, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, Tilth Alliance, Trees for Neighborhoods, Trillium Sustainability, and more joined Seattle Parks and Recreation staff in a wonderful day of morning stretches, donuts and coffee, pulling blackberry, sharing knowledge, and simply catching up. As the day progressed, the sun rose higher, the smiles became warmer, and conversations flowed freely. By the end, everyone was tired and sweaty, but the real work of forging connections and building relationships made it all worth it.
Enjoy photographs of the event taken by Cascadia Consulting Group’s Sarah Schu.
P.S. Seattle Forest Week is coming up November 7 – 15, 2026. Mark your calendars so you can connect with your community through restoration!