This fall, the Department of Neighborhoods will be providing free trees for planting on residential streets in Seattle neighborhoods.

Applications are accepted from groups of neighbors and are due on Friday, August 15, 2008.

This is the Tree Fund's 13th year, having planted 19,000 trees, and investing nearly $700,000 in making Seattle a greener city. The Tree Fund is a program of the Neighborhood Matching Fund and the Seattle Department of Transportation.

In exchange for free trees to be delivered by the city this fall, groups of neighbors attend a city-sponsored training session and then organize their neighbors to plant the trees. The goal is to beautify Seattle streets and to support a clean and green environment.

Seattle's tree cover has shrunk from 40 percent of the city's land area in 1972 to just 18 percent today, a decline that some say threatens nature's ability to help manage storm water, reduce erosion, absorb climate-disrupting gases and clean the air.

Groups of five households or more on a street or block are eligible to apply and can request a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 40 trees per project. To apply, contact the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, 684-0464 or at www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/treefund.htm