Green Seattle Partnership

Strategic Action Plan

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Welcome

Our Strategic Plan

 

As we celebrate 20 years of the Green Seattle Partnership (GSP), we have taken time to reflect as a community on all that we have accomplished and learned together in 20 years, and where we want to continue to grow in the years ahead.

We are excited to bring this new strategic action plan to life with you: our community of volunteers, program participants, partners, restoration professionals, and fellow Seattle residents.

A Long-Term Vision & Short-Term Action Plan

Our work together is intergenerational, grounded in an understanding that nature works in long timeframes. In this plan, we take inspiration from the trees around us to look across two planning horizons:

Long-Term Vision (2026-2035)

A 10-year roadmap that guides us as we grow outward and upward.

Short-Term Action Plan (2026-2028)

We have crafted an action plan for the next 3 years that marks our growth, each year’s actions expanding our durability and influence like another tree ring.

Strategic Planning Process Overview

Early and Broad Engagement

We started the strategic planning process by listening and hearing from partners, community members, and leaders on what their experiences with GSP have been, and what they hope to see or partner on in the future.

Steering Committee

A cross-section of the Partnership community led as members of a steering committee that was responsible for building on community input to set the 10-year vision, identify the pillars, and steward the plan’s development.

Pillar Workgroups

Detailed action plan development was led by “pillar” (key focus area) workgroups comprised of subject matter experts, community leaders and impacted partners. Each pillar workgroup came together in three intensive planning sessions to develop priority outcomes and strategies.

Follow-Up Engagement

Before finalizing the plan, we went back to the Partnership community. We conducted a series of briefing meetings, open houses, and interviews to gather feedback and validation from community on the draft plan, ensuring it met the needs identified in the original listening sessions.

Seattle Parks and Recreation Leadership

Throughout this process, Seattle Parks and Recreation leadership contributed valuable input and support.

View a detailed breakdown of our process and findings.

Thank You to Our Community

Green Seattle Partnership is deeply grateful to our incredible community who contributed their expertise and perspectives through surveys, focus groups, committees, work groups, and more to shape this plan.

A special thank you to our core contributors:

Pillar Work Groups

Steering Committee

Advisory Groups

Celebrating 20 Years

Green Seattle Partnership’s Journey

 

A 20-Year Plan

Green Seattle Partnership (GSP) was originally designed as a one-time, 20-year investment in Seattle parklands, charted by a 20-year strategic plan with a mighty dual goal to:

  • Restore and maintain the forested parklands and designated natural areas of Seattle; and
  • Expand and galvanize an informed, involved, and active community around forest restoration and stewardship.

Twenty Years Later

Twenty years later, we are still here, growing and deepening our work. It is now clear that GSP is bigger than a single point-in-time program and that our work exists in much longer ecological timescales. We’ve created a powerful ecosystem of partners and volunteers, and together we are proving it is never too late to repair the land and waters for generations to come.

Looking Forward

We’ll be focusing our efforts so that we can engage more meaningfully with our many partners, create pathways for more residents to connect with Seattle parklands, and harness all our learnings towards building resilience for the ecosystems that support us.

Our Evolution

We’ve changed a lot in 20 years! As we’ve responded to the changing world around us and adapted the work we do and how we do it, we’ve grown in many ways:

  • From point-in-time project to core convener. We’ve become an essential connector across a wide network of people working on restoration efforts across Seattle: partner organizations, City of Seattle departments, Forest Stewards, community-based groups and schools, and volunteers and participants. 
  • From forest focus to full ecosystem view. We have worked together to innovate our practices, expanding from weed removal and tree planting to a broader understanding of recovery and care opportunities for a variety of forest systems as well as marine and freshwater shorelines, creek watersheds, and meadows.
  • From traditional conservation principles to environmental justice. We prioritize benefits and accountability to plants and people, understanding that this work isn’t just about conservation, it’s about re-building positive relationships with the land and water, ensuring the benefits of healthy natural areas are shared across Seattle neighborhoods.

Where We Are Today

In our 20 years of existence, we have streamlined restoration to connect people directly to the forests, parklands, and plants they live alongside. Getting tools and knowledge in people’s hands has led to many more community members building relationships with their local parks.

Alongside partners, volunteers, ecological restoration professionals, and supporters that make it possible, we are proud to have made huge strides for Seattle parklands, including:

  • 2,064 acres being restored across 174 parks, representing forests, meadows, wetlands, marine and freshwater shoreline, and riparian creek corridors
  • 170+ active volunteer Forest Stewards leading events in their neighborhood parks, with 494 Forest Stewards trained since 2005 and 71 Stewards accomplishing 10 years of service
  • 1,438,942 total volunteer hours, with youth contributing 23% of those hours
  • 1,507,386 total native plants planted, including 355,238 trees
  • 62,249 trees freed from climbing vines

In 2024 alone, we accomplished:

  • 74,000 native plants planted, including 7,640 trees
  • 64% of activities concentrated in neighborhoods with the highest need
  • 210 participants in our paid job pathways program, including 100+ youth
  • 1,500+ community events hosted with partners across the city
  • 78 schools engaged in land care work

Our Strategic Vision

The Next 10 Years

Vision

We see Seattle as a thriving, equitable city that supports urban ecosystems and community members. We remain committed to restoring Seattle’s urban forests, waterways, and natural areas, while fostering a culture of belonging and connection that benefits the health of the Salish Sea region.

In service to our vision, we share stewardship programming, restore ecological health, expand access to greenspaces, and reconnect people to land care. Our work is relational, guided by accountability, anti-racism, and environmental justice values that support a healthy environment for all.

Guiding Values

Our planning and the actions we take to bring these plans to fruition are guided by the following values:

1. Fostering a Culture of Reciprocity

We prioritize respect and mutually beneficial relationships with each other and the land. We believe that long-term ecological health is dependent on relationships where people work together to provide for and benefit from our ecosystems.

2. Nurturing a Sense of Belonging

We prioritize efforts that create a welcoming environment where people feel invited, safe, and connected to one another. We are committed to building and sustaining a generational legacy of care for the environment and each other.

3. Holding Ourselves and Each Other Accountable

We invite and hold space for direct and honest feedback and encourage transparency with our partners and community. As a collective, we are accountable to identifying and opposing racist ideas, policies, systems, and actions; centering the lived experiences and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color; and prioritizing programs, policies, relationships, and approaches that actively advance environmental justice.

Our Action Plan

The Next 3 Years

(January 2026 – December 2028)

 

Strategic Priorities Overview

Our strategic plan is rooted in three priority areas, or pillars. These pillars represent the core of who GSP is: our programming that we offer to support community; our care of the land, water, and ecosystems; and the partnerships that bring it all to life.

Plan development focused closely on identifying areas where GSP should see essential improvements through deliberate and intentional efforts, naming areas to shore up the program’s foundation and prioritizing commitments to delivering equitable and inclusive programming. As such, the pillars, strategies and outcomes identified below reflect thoughtful analyses and input from GSP stakeholders to ensure accountability and alignment with our GSP Values.

Continuing Our Critical Programs

Across each of these pillars, we have 20 years of history and strengths. In our next 20 years, we’ll continue to lean into these critical programs that make us who we are — delivering professional restoration efforts, advancing partner-led programming, and supporting Forest Steward to lead at their sites — in addition to the strategies, actions, and outcomes named in our strategic plan.

Alongside these priority actions, we are committed to continuing to move forward large-scale restoration across Seattle, enrolling an average of 30 new acres in restoration each year and continuing care of an additional 300 acres annually. This work is coordinated by Seattle Parks and Recreation with field leadership by Parks and Recreation’s Natural Area Crew, contracted professional crews, partner organizations, and Forest Stewards.

Aligning closely with Seattle Parks and Recreation’s leadership with the Thriving Environment Initiative, we are building climate change resilience into Seattle’s urban fabric by stewarding and protecting urban forests and natural spaces, grounded in principles of environmental and climate justice.

Learn More About Each Pillar

View all pillars

Partnership Building

10-Year Vision: Partnership Building efforts will sustain a cooperative structure that includes pathways for accountability, inclusive leadership, and coordinated investments to meet shared goals.

Areas of Focus:
1. Cooperative partnership structure
2. Diverse partnership representation
3. Fiscal resilience

Explore Partnership Building

Community Programming

10-Year Vision: Community Programming will result in a culture of care for Seattle’s ecosystems, where engagement opportunities prioritize belonging and connection, provide tangible benefits to participants, and are responsive to community relationships.

Areas of Focus:
1. Grow student engagement
2. Relational and community-centered programming
3. Career pathways

Explore Community Programming

Stewardship & Land Care

10-Year Vision: GSP’s Stewardship and Land Care work will result in urban ecosystems that are rich in life, resilient in the face of climate change, and tended by an inclusive and collaborative network that invites diverse perspectives and emphasizes continuous learning.

Areas of Focus:
1. Climate-resilient restoration planning
2. Equitable site prioritization
3. Knowledge sharing

Explore Stewardship & Land Care

Bringing the Plan to Life

Our Strategic Action Plan will live with the collective Partnership. To advance strategic actions, Seattle Parks and Recreation Green Seattle Partnership staff will weave in leadership and support from partner organizations, restoration professionals and Forest Stewards into annual scopes of work.

Key to our collective success bringing this plan to life as a Partnership are the GSP Working Circles: small groups with expertise in a given topic that will lead analyses and evaluation, inform programming direction, and expand relationships. Working Circles will build on the existing Pillar Action Plan strategies, bringing diverse voices to lead the Partnership.

These Circles will include:

Cooperative Partnership Structure
New Relationships
Fiscal Resilience
Student Engagement
Career Pathways
Restoration Assessment
Knowledge Sharing

Each pillar includes its own set of metrics for tracking accountability, which will be overseen by the Working Circles. Dig deeper into Working Circles and accountability metrics on our full Action Plan PDF.

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