Campus Trees

This page highlights several species of trees existing on the University of Washington Campus. Selected trees are all native to western Washington and have held significance for Indigenous peoples of this area since time immemorial. Across campus, you will find these trees displaying small signs with a language that may be unfamiliar to you. Stop to read them, and learn more below. 

Each of tree species are labeled with their Southern Lushootseed name written on handmade seed paper. Southern Lushootseed is the language traditionally spoken by many of the Coast Salish peoples of the Puget Sound region, including the Duwamish, whose ancestral land encompasses the UW campus. There are numerous preservation and revitalization efforts ongoing for the Lushootseed language, and we believed it was important that this project contribute to the effort in some way.

We chose seed paper as signage with the intention of causing minimal disruption to the surrounding natural environment. The paper is tied around selected trees with biodegradable twine so as to not damage the tree in any way. As the paper degrades, it will release the embedded seeds to the earth. Our handmade seed paper contains native yarrow (šišəlc̓ac) seeds, which produce small white flowers.  

Translations for Southern Lushootseed Tree Names