Program on the Environment

Urban forests provide important ecological and social benefits, including habitat protection, carbon storage, and public access to green space. In Seattle, long-term restoration is especially important because urban parks face pressure from invasive plants, soil disturbance, limited maintenance capacity, and increasing recreational use. Understanding how site and management inputs contribute to measurable ecological outcome is important for improving how restoration projects are planned, staffed, and evaluated. During my internship with a community-based restoration program, I compiled records of volunteer hours, restoration activities, area cleared, biomass removed, and site maintenance efforts. I used descriptive statistics, efficiency measures, and data visualizations to compare restoration output across work events and management tasks. Results suggest that restoration output varies across sites and activities. In some cases, additional volunteer hours produced smaller gains, suggesting that efficiency may decline when sites require more careful work, tasks become more complex, or coordination needs increase. Some work events produced high visible output, while others required substantial time for careful removal, follow-up maintenance, or work in more difficult site conditions. These findings show that restoration efficiency depends not only on the amount of labor available, but also on task type, vegetation conditions, accessibility, and management priorities. This matters because urban forest planning must allocate limited time, funding, and community effort across many restoration needs. By connecting restoration inputs with measurable outputs, this project provides practical insight for improving project planning, volunteer coordination, and long-term ecological management in Lincoln Park.