Send a potent message to SAVE local trees & forests — easily!
Petitions to save trees that are sent to local and Washington State decision-makers are an important part of Whatcom Million Trees Project’s advocacy work.
Petitions are one of the many ways we work to save urban trees in our local communities and threatened legacy forests in our local watersheds.
Your voice truly matters and WILL collectively make a difference to save trees. Engaged “people power” always creates new realities in politics!
Quickly and easily, support our region’s climate resilience, biodiversity, and quality of life. Please sign one or more of our petition(s) below TODAY! It only takes a minute to do! And since these are advisory petitions (not election petitions), anyone can sign. You do not need to be 18 or older, a registered voter, or even live in Bellingham or Whatcom County.
Note: We deeply care about the privacy of your personal info. Maintaining the highest ethics is very important to us. Your name and email will not be shared with ANY other organization. When the petition is sent to its intended recipient, names and emails will be partially obscured.
WMTP’s Currently Active Petitions
Petition to WA State Legislature
Support the Washington Green Amendment
This petition is to urge our state legislators to add an amendment to the bill of rights section of the WA State Constitution which recognizes and protects the rights of all people, including future generations, to pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments.
The Mission of Green Amendments For The Generations is to ensure every person and community across the United States is able to experience the health, quality of life, education, joy and economic prosperity provided by a clean, safe and healthy environment; to end environmental racism; and to help ensure that nature itself is able to thrive, by constitutionally empowering all people to secure and enforce their inalienable human right to pure water, clean air, a stable climate, healthy ecosystems and environments.
Petition to COB STaff & City Council
Improve Bellingham’s Urban Forest Plan Draft Report
This petition urges the City of Bellingham to improve its draft Urban Forest Plan report, such as by including clear, specific, measurable Actions to protect existing mature trees that will be implemented urgently within the City.
The final report will pivotally guide the City’s policies and regulations regarding urban trees for the next 25 years. If we do not create effective regulations (and incentives) NOW to protect a significant portion of mature trees, our community’s character, livability, health, and climate resilience will diminish. Please sign this petition to support Whatcom Million Tree Project’s efforts to fix and improve the City’s UFP report.
Petition to Wsda
Prohibit the selling of English ivy in Washington State
This petition urges the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to add English ivy & Atlantic/Boston ivy to their Prohibited Plants and Seeds List. The WSDA list prohibits nurseries in WA from selling harmful plant species.
These ivies are non-native and prevalent. Eventually killing virtually every tree they climb, thousands of trees within Whatcom County are threatened (as are tens of thousands of trees statewide)! By stopping the retail selling of these ivy plants, we can dramatically slow its damaging spread. Please sign this petition so we have a good chance to achieve this much-needed ban!
Petition to COB Planning
Protect unique Mud Bay from cliffside over-development
Mud Bay Cliffs is a forested, undeveloped 38-acre site which is designated as an Important Habitat Hub and Important Wildlife Corridor. It connects Clark’s Point wildlife reserve to Chuckanut Village Marsh & Chuckanut Bay Open Space. The site drains directly into Mud Bay, Bellingham’s most biologically diverse estuary and salt marsh wetlands.
These ecologically sensitive Mud Bay lands are a unique Bellingham gem. Subdividing four lots into 38 “high-income” lots will likely have significant adverse environmental and public safety impacts. This petition calls for the City of Bellingham Planning Department to require a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) so such impacts will be better understood. Please sign it!
WMTP’s Prior Petitions
Stop the removal of 327+ mature trees in Bellingham
This petition urged the City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner to require modifications to the proposed 68-unit infill housing development by Bellingham Golf & Country Club. By eliminating just eight 2,215 SF luxury duplexes, for example, that require double the site area of each of the other 60 units, a revised site plan would save many more trees yet still provide needed infill housing. Better-planned infill housing will not compromise the livability and climate resilience of our city.
Our results: 1,760 petition signatures with hundreds of heartfelt comments and thoughtful emails were sent to the City for review by Planning Staff and the Hearing Examiner. Ryan Nelson, the planner assigned to the BGCC project, commented that it was the most community feedback he had experienced on any project in his entire career! Thank you petition signers!
Withdraw flawed WA WUI code that will clear 100,000+ trees
This petition urged the WA State Building Code Council to withdraw its “defensible space” building code provisions that would have taken effect in March 2024. The faulty code provisions required extensive tree removal of 30′ to 100′ around ALL new or expanded structures in red or yellow zones of a problematic DNR WUI map. This would have profoundly impacted most Washington communities, especially along the coast. It conflicted with many State/local policies, and was not supported by the latest wildfire science.
Our results: As a result of our petition signed by 399 people as well as our months-long advocacy effort to educate policymakers and communities about the problems of the SBCC code, SB 6120 was introduced and passed which legislatively corrected most of the problems at a State level. Now local jurisdictions will set their own defensible space standards (if any), a process which we will continue to monitor at least within Whatcom County.
Protect Mature Federal Forest Lands from Non-Ecological Logging
On Earth Day 2022, President Biden issued an executive order calling on the Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conserve mature and old-growth forests as a climate solution. These agencies asked for public comment through July 20, 2023. Our petition asked them to act swiftly with a substantive, nationwide regulation that ends ecologically harmful logging of mature and old-growth forests and trees on federal land — so those invaluable trees can continue to mitigate the climate crisis, contribute to healthy watersheds, and provide ecosystem resilience.
Our results: 27 WMTP-based signatures were sent to USFS and BLM on July 19, 2023, adding to hundreds of thousands of signatures sent in nationally. Thank you to all signers!
Thanks for taking part in important local advocacy — for our trees and our community!
Other ways you can help these causes TODAY…
- Spread the word. In a few seconds, you can do enormous good for trees. How? Share our petition link in your favorite social media!
- Stay informed. Subscribe to our monthly free e-newsletter to stay informed of our latest petitions and other advocacy efforts.
- Help our Advocacy Team. Help us plan and strategize to save trees. Suggest ideas. Or do important legwork, such as posting flyers. Interested? Please contact us. Thanks!