Six Years of Stewardship at qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”)
Since 2017, with the support of City of Tacoma Environmental Services, 350 Tacoma has been working to restore this long-neglected but resilient site on the ancestral tideflats of the Puyallup Tribe, located deep in the industrial Port of Tacoma, nestled between a fossil fuel terminal and a container shipping yard. As part of the Tacoma Open Space Program, we hosted regular work parties at the site to remove invasive weeds, restore native habitat, and pick up litter. Tidal and salt marshes, seagrasses and mangroves, are powerhouses when it comes to carbon sequestration — two to four times more than terrestrial forests — and are therefore considered a key component of nature-based solutions to climate change. Salt Marshes help maintain water quality by filtering runoff and excess nutrients while providing vital habitat for fish, birds, invertebrates, bivalves, and other wildlife. Prior to colonization, the area known today as the Port of Tacoma was a thriving pristine estuary, with abundant marine life, wildlife, trees and plants.
We are currently hosting Work Parties on the second Saturday of most months, from 9am – 12pm. 1845 Port of Tacoma Rd. Check out our calendar of events here!
Water Is Life Series
This spring and summer 350 Tacoma hosted a series of events that combined caring for qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”), a 1.5 acre salt marsh that we steward, with educational presentations by local organizations and experts, covering a wide range of water-related topics. The series helped us reinvigorate public interest in weeding, planting and picking up trash at the salt marsh. Our presenters taught the community: about the history of land known today as the Port of Tacoma; the cultural importance of the tideflats to Puyallup tribal members; the impacts of Seattle’s cruise industry on our waters, climate and health; the history and harms of toxic industry along our local waterways; the importance of our local aquifers and current threats to their continuity; the benefits of trees for our waterways and health, and the inequity of current tree canopy in different neighborhoods; what we expect to see in Tacoma as the result of the climate crisis in the form of sea level rise, flooding, and climate-related disasters. Learn more about the series here.
Community Organizing Hub at 311 Puyallup Ave
Since signing the lease on our beautiful and accessible 350 Tacoma space in 2019, it has been our dream to provide a community organizing hub for grassroots activism. It has been amazing to see this vision become a reality. We shared the space with: The Black Panther Party for meetings, educational forums and free CommUNITY Defense Classes; Climate Alliance South Sound as their main office, weekly meeting location, and to host art parties, movie screenings and educational events; Coast Salish Water Warriors for vigils, craft nights, and cultural gatherings; Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero Tacoma Coalition to create and store art projects, hold informational meetings and public speaking workshops. All public events were free to attend and most provided nutritious snacks or meals. The Community Hub is a family-friendly, drug and alcohol-free space.
Reject PSE’s Dirty Money Campaign
We ask elected representatives to sign pledges not to accept donations from fossil fuel companies. It’s time we start doing the same as non-profits and community groups. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is a for-profit fossil fuel company, despite cloaking themselves as an energy utility. Around 60% of PSE’s electric energy is sourced from fossil fuels. On top of that, they provide gas to 900K customers. Their actions are often harmful to our communities, while actively greenwashing their reputation by sponsoring local and regional events. It’s time we stop enabling this behavior, and start rejecting PSE’s social bribery. During a National Utility Justice Week of Action, we launched a campaign with tools to help organizations and individuals reject PSE’s event sponsorship and dirty money. Learn more at bit.ly/rejectPSEmoney
Tacoma Charter Review
The Charter Review is an opportunity every ten years to update the way our city government functions. 350 Tacoma, in collaboration with other local organizations, advocated for increased policing accountability measures and for replacing the unelected city manager form of government with a city council/mayor system that is more accountable to residents. We mobilized comments, engaged the public with thought-provoking art, and co-hosted a town hall, potluck and other educational forums.
Beehive Collective Tour Stop
350 Tacoma was excited to be the Tacoma stop on the Beehive Collective’s 2024 Tour. Offering immersive gigantic portable murals teeming with intricate images of plants and animals and storytelling to inspire grassroots movements for change. Attendees got to experience Mesoamérica Resiste–documenting resistance to the top-down development plans and mega-infrastructure projects that literally pave the way for resource extraction and free trade–and The True Cost of Coal– a graphic using mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia as a lens through which to understand the historical and contemporary story of energy and resource extraction.
Supporting Water Warriors in the Prayer for a Canoe Family
We were honored to support Coast Salish Water Warriors in the prayer to build a canoe family for at-risk youth. Canoes provide access to cultural activities, ceremony, and a pathway to walking the Red Road. Indigenous youth are currently at higher risk of suicide, drug abuse, and incarceration. The Water Warrior canoe family will focus on supporting at-risk youth with mentorship and participation. 350 Tacoma is honored to provide fiscal sponsorship so that donations towards the canoe cost can be tax-deductible. We helped recruit volunteers to support the October Gala Fundraiser.
Supporting and Collaborating with Chiapas Education Project
It is an honor to support Chiapas Education Project (CEP) in their mission to expand access to technology while easing the burden on Mother Earth by keeping electronics out of the landfill. 350 Tacoma is a drop off site for your old/unwanted laptops, tablets, desktops and computer accessories, which will get properly recycled or refurbished by CEP and given to somebody unable to afford a new computer. We provided a space for CEP to offer free computer repair classes in English and Spanish and provided fiscal sponsorship so that donations to this amazing organization are tax deductible.
350 WA Civic Action Team (CAT)
As one of the 350 organizations in Washington state, we recruited Tacoma residents to participate in the CAT Team–receiving twice weekly emails during the state legislative session about 72 key climate and social justice policies. Of those, 22 passed and we stopped 9 that were no good. Lawmakers set aside several bills, notably the ReWRAP Act, the CURB Act, and Transit Oriented Development, that we hope will return next year. Together, CAT mobilized 558 people across Washington to take over 61,513 legislative advocacy actions, and made climate impossible to ignore in the state legislature. HB 1368 Requiring and funding the purchase of zero emission school buses, passed! Passed Salmon safe tires, SB 5931, which directs the State to do research into how to get 6PPD, a chemical that is toxic for salmon out of our car tires. SB 6009 prohibits law enforcement from using the practice of hogtying–a cruel, dehumanizing practice which causes unnecessary risk of injury or death.
Endorsement of Ballot Initiatives
We endorsed the No on 2117 campaign which would repeal the Climate Commitment Act and the strides it made towards environmental justice. We also endorsed the No on I-2109 campaign which would have cut the capital gains tax on the wealthy, reducing critical education and childcare funding.
Tideflats Subarea Plan
We have helped the public engage with this long-range planning process since it first began in 2017. The stated purpose of the Subarea Plan is to create a unified, long-term vision for the Tideflats area that balances industrial success with environmental restoration. It aims to provide a coordinated approach to development, environmental review, and infrastructure investments, while also supporting the Port of Tacoma’s role as a manufacturing and industrial center, integrating climate resilience strategies, respecting Puyallup Tribe rights, and fostering economic innovation in clean energy. 2024 saw the public comment period for the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
Advocacy Against the Polluting and Exploitative Cruise Industry
350 Tacoma was proud to endorse and turn out volunteers for Speak For the Seas: Kids Call Out Cruise rally and press conference on the opening day of Seattle’s cruise season. We partnered with Seattle Cruise Control to educate Tacoma residents about giant cruise ships poison our air, water and climate while exploiting workers and destination communities.
Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero Tacoma
This two-year initiative is aimed at transforming Tacoma, a “ground zero” area heavily impacted by industrial pollution, environmental degradation, and climate injustices, into a model of resilience and equity. Rooted in Indigenous knowledge, collective action, and a commitment to leaving each place better than we found it, ccg0 tackles a range of issues—pollution, environmental health, and climate vulnerabilities—by working across multiple fronts to uplift the entire community. 350 Tacoma helped organize the ccg0 Open House Launch of the coalition, a field trip to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, trash clean up, and painting “Rocks of Burden” that were taken to City Council.
Connection Day
This April celebration draws inspiration from the Lakota saying “Mitakuye Oyasin”—“we are all related,” underlining the deep bond between each other and the Earth. Connection Day is a reflection of the Indigenous understanding that we are not separate from the Earth but a part of it. The day started with a morning community cleanup hosted by the Water Warrior Youth at the Port of Tacoma, a symbol of our shared commitment to the planet and each other. This was followed by an afternoon tree planting near the South Tacoma Mega Warehouse site with Climate Alliance of the South Sound, an act of environmental stewardship and love.
Green Tacoma Day
This annual day of service offers great opportunities for the community to get to know each other and our local green spaces. Participants are encouraged to take individual actions and participate in volunteer activities to help protect and restore natural spaces in their neighborhoods. 350 co-hosted a Green Tacoma Day at qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”). The day was a success with over 30 people participating and 260 new plants put in the ground!
South Tacoma Mega Warehouse
The fight continued against Bridge Industrial’s 2.5 million square foot warehouse complex, despite the Tacoma Hearing Examiner upholding the Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance in late 2023. We partnered with Climate Alliance South Sound and other organizations to hold rallies in Tacoma and at the Bridge Industrial HQ in Bellevue, and supported community discussions about the environmental justice impacts.
Advocating for Social Justice
Climate justice cannot be separated from social justice. We collaborated with local organizations to urge the city of Tacoma to cancel its pilot trial of the ShotSpotter surveillance system in the Hosmer neighborhood (Which was cancelled in 2025!) 350 Tacoma provided fiscal sponsorship for The Conversation 253 to be eligible for grant funding which supported the Feed The People program–delivering food and survival items to our unhoused neighbors. Stacy Oaks, one of our Community Organizers received a social justice award at the 18th annual MLK Jr. Redeeming The Prophetic Vision gathering at Evergreen College Tacoma.
Coalitions
We are stronger together! 350 Tacoma was proud to be part of the Stand Up To Oil Coalition (SUTO), the SeaTac Clean Ports Coalition, the 350 Network Council, Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero Tacoma Coalition (ccg0), and the Clean Mobility Collective.
Gratitude
We raise our hands to the Puyallup Tribe and Coast Salish Peoples who have stewarded these lands and waters since time immemorial, and continue to do so today. We love our community, and appreciate everyone that sends us small recurring monthly donations, sent us a one-time donation, showed up to events, helped cook delicious meals, shared calls to action, provided research, made art, and shared your your gifts with the world. We are deeply grateful to the organizations that helped make our work possible this year: The Mary E Nolting Family Foundation, Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, Global Greengrants Fund, and the Stand Up To Oil Coalition.