The Duwamish Valley Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, founded in 1992 and headquartered in Seattle, fights to protect affordable housing and irreplaceable old-growth trees in South Park, Georgetown, and Tukwila – culturally-diverse working-class neighborhoods already bearing the heaviest burden of pollution and environmental health risks in the city. These communities face double jeopardy: residents live eight years less than the Seattle average while enduring 90 percent less green space, yet new development threatens to clear-cut the mature trees that provide their only defense against flooding, landslides, and extreme heat. DVNPC promotes affordable home-buying opportunities from existing housing stock, fights high-density building codes, and creates community gardens for vulnerable families who cannot afford to lose the natural infrastructure keeping their neighborhoods livable.
Under Jennifer Scarlett’s leadership, the all-volunteer nonprofit DVNPC focuses on preserving Seattle’s oldest housing stock in neighborhoods where residents face the worst air pollution and highest asthma rates in a city that is losing 50 acres of trees per year. When catastrophic flooding struck South Park in 2022 – a once-in-30-year event that displaced families – it reinforced the critical importance of DVNPC’s tree preservation efforts in flood-prone areas where sea level rise, storm surges, and heavier rains will likely exacerbate future flooding. From knocking on doors, to weekly meetings, to partnering with 25 other local groups, DVNPC members work to save the neighborhoods’ old trees that provide essential flood protection and cooling benefits that developers’ replacement saplings simply cannot match. These mature trees absorb more carbon dioxide than young replacements while serving as nature-based flood mitigation for this vulnerable working-class neighborhood.