Federal Way staff report planting 68 trees at Larson Justice to mitigate O&M facility impacts

City of Federal Way Environmental Services staff reported planting about 68 trees across two wetland parcels at Larson Justice Conservation Land to implement a mitigation plan tied to construction of an operations and maintenance (O&M) facility.

Bridal McGrath, with Environmental Services in the City of Federal Way Public Works department, said, "we are standing at the Larson Justice, tree planting site. There are 2 parcels here. It's wetland, and we have about 68 different trees planted, about 6 species."

A city staff member said the work included planting willows and other species and was intended to replace trees removed during construction: "We're out here to, basically, implement our mitigation plan for the O and M facility since we took down trees to build the 0 And M facility. We have to plant trees to replace those that we took down."

City staff said the planting and follow-up care — mulching, watering and feeding — were carried out in partnership with the Northwest Youth Corps and the Public Works maintenance and operations team. The speakers described the site as wetland and said the program aims to establish canopy cover over time.

The city did not specify a timeline for when the new trees are expected to reach canopy height or any funding sources for the mitigation work.