City of Redmond's Award-Winning Climate Resilient Vegetation Management
The City of Redmond continues to be a leader in sustainable and climate-resilient vegetation management.
This past summer, Redmond’s efforts were recognized at the 19th Annual United States Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Awards. Mayor Angela Birney and the City received a 2025 Small City Honorable Mention for their Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Vegetation Management (CRSVM) Plan. As the 2025 U.S. Mayors and Climate Protection Best Practices Report states, “The CRSVM sets into motion a cascade of changes that will enhance the quality of life for Redmond community members and the natural environment.”
Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Vegetation Management Plan
Herrera supported the development of the CRSVM Plan in 2023-2024, helping the City identify forward-looking strategies to strengthen ecological resilience while streamlining vegetation management. Key recommendations included expanding tree canopy, rewilding select turf areas, adopting native and climate-resilient plant palettes, transitioning landscapes to more diverse ecosystems, and building centralized documentation to guide coordinated implementation. The Herrera team also led robust research and analysis effort to inform opportunities for tree-canopy expansion and climate-adapted species lists — resources that may be valuable for other jurisdictions seeking to advance similar goals.
The Mayors’ Climate Protection Award highlighted this work, noting that “…the City now has a clear, stakeholder-informed view of tree planting locations as it works to reach 40 percent tree canopy cover by 2050.”
Learning from Implementation and Sharing Best Practices
Over the past two years, the City has made substantial progress implementing priority CRSVM Plan strategies across parks, right-of-way, trails, waterways, and City facilities. Redmond is also actively sharing lessons learned with peer jurisdictions and parks departments.
At the November Washington Parks and Recreation Association Fall Training, Herrera’s Rachel Johnson and Christina Merten joined Redmond leadership and staff to present insights from both the development and early implementation of the CRSVM Plan. Herrera highlighted several core lessons that the City and Herrera have learned from the planning process: the value of cross-departmental collaboration and support from day one, the importance of engaging staff who manage vegetation on the ground, the benefits of supporting staff champions, and the need for an adaptive, phased approach that keeps the plan current and actionable.
Redmond staff shared early implementation successes, including naturalized meadow test sites, wildflower test sites, new pollinator gardens near a community garden, turf renovations, distributing trees to residents, expanding native plant landscaping, and equipment electrification.
We applaud the City of Redmond on their continued leadership in piloting, adapting, and sharing innovative practices that advance more resilient and sustainable vegetation management throughout their City and Western Washington.
Read more about this project: Redmond Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Vegetation Management Plan – Herrera
Read the US Mayors Report: 25.68.USCM_.CPC_.Best_.Practices.MEC_.pdf
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