Published on February 11, 2025
Last month the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory gathered to share their progress. The Research to Action Collaboratory, or RAC, is an incubation program that provides dedicated team time, skill sharing, and seed funding. RAC teams include academics from different fields as well as community leaders who come together to tackle complex urban challenges. RAC leaders bring teams together three times a year to share project management skills and give teams the opportunity to learn from each other.
The day began with each team sharing their progress. The Microforest Team is creating a complete forest ecosystem on a small lot on the University of Washington Tacoma campus in partnership with Tacoma Tree Foundation and the City of Tacoma’s Urban Forestry Program. The project was conceived to help solve a complicated problem- only 19% of the City of Tacoma has tree canopy, which leads to more pollution and poor health outcomes, as well as a greater susceptibility to heat islands during times of extreme weather. This isn’t solely an environmental issue- the areas of the city with the fewest trees, and therefore the most detriments to health, are those most impacted by structural racism and other inequalities.The Microforest project is a move toward righting a significant injustice: the lack of government investment in parts of the city that are most populated by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
The future forest site was a grassy lot when the project began in spring of 2024. Now project leaders have collaborated with Cedar Circle, UWT’s indigenous student group, to create created interpretive materials that honor the Native people who still inhabit Tacoma. The group also created signage to bear witness to the internment of Japanese Americans that roiled Tacoma when, in a single day in 1942, over 900 Japanese Americans were interned.
The Microforest Team also shared that they have entered the design phase of the project. This phase involves creating an overall plan for the forest, scheduling what to plant when, and determining how the site will be maintained. Finally, the team has scheduled a planting day in May, gathering the Tacoma Tree Foundation and student volunteer groups to get plants in the ground.
The Microforest team includes:
Rubén Casas, Assistant Professor, Culture, Arts and Communication, University of Washington, Tacoma. Faculty Lead, Urban@UW Urban Environmental Justice Initiative. UW Co-Lead
Mark Pagano, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology, University of Washington, Tacoma. Community Engagement Lead, UW Community Engagement Initiative. UW Co-Lead
Rachel Williams, student, School of Engineering and Technology, University of Washington Tacoma
Ryan Wicklund, student, University of Washington Tacoma
Lowell Wyse, Executive Director, Tacoma Tree Foundation. Community Lead
Michael Carey, Urban Forest Program Manager, City of Tacoma
The second team in the 2024-25 cohort is Strengthening Green Stormwater Infrastructure at Paradise Plots, a large community garden and food forest in Kent, Washington. Paradise Plots is a program of World Relief Western Washington, the state’s largest refugee resettlement program. The City of Kent is the sixth most diverse city in the United States but lacks sufficient stormwater infrastructure and has a long history of flooding. A growing population and increased intense rain events have exacerbated existing challenges for people already facing structural inequalities.
The Green Stormwater team is collecting site-specific data at Paradise Plots because they have created one of the few large-scale stormwater infrastructure projects in South King County. The data will provide two important benefits: it models how other cities might implement sustainable, community-inspired stormwater management solutions. Also, the team is seeking legislative reform. Despite the project’s ability to divert over 1 million gallons of stormwater each year, the City of Kent’s utility fee system does not acknowledge the garden’s value in helping to manage water with stormwater credits. The project will provide data to the City of Kent in the hopes of changing Kent’s stormwater credit system.
Over the autumn and winter months the Green Stormwater team installed probes to monitor water flow and conductivity, conducted a literature review of similar projects, and reviewed models that use green stormwater infrastructure for hydraulic calculations. They considered studies about community GSI projects and prepared to interview stormwater utility managers/directors in cities across Washington.
The Green Stormwater team includes:
Heidi Gough, Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. UW Co-lead, supervising students Ethan Bacci, Charles (Mack) Henry, and Zach Hogue .
Sameer Shah, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental & Forest Sciences at UW. UW Co-lead, supervising student Cyril Jonathan Clement.
Amy Kuhl, WRWW Resiliency Program Manager
Lucas McClish, WRWW Community Garden Coordinator. Community Lead
Zahra Waezzada, WRWW Intern
- Austeen Pradhan, WRWW Intern
Last month the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory gathered to share their progress. The Research to Action Collaboratory, or RAC, is an incubation program that provides dedicated team time, skill sharing, and seed funding.