Thousands of trees will be cut to make way for Lynnwood light rail

Work on the next section of light rail from Northgate to Lynnwood will finally begin at the end of this month, but not without some sacrifice.

In order to make way for the project, thousands and thousands of trees along I-5 will have to be cut down.

Sharon Collman lives in Mountlake Terrace, right next to what will soon be the new light rail, and she’s pretty passionate about plants.

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She grows a few hundred different species of them in her garden but even this master gardener knows nothing is growing faster than the population in Snohomish County.

“We already have gridlock,” she told us. “People don't want to go to Seattle - it's just too crowded."

Voters, including Collman, approved Sound Transit's expansion bringing light rail to Lynnwood by 2024 and Everett by 2036.

At the end of April, crews will begin cutting about 5,000 trees to make way for the light rail.

“It's just sad. There's no way getting around it— it’s unavoidable. We've worked with WSDOT to make sure we are minimizing the number of trees we have to take down,” John Gallagher, spokesperson for Sound Transit's North Sound expansion told KIRO 7.

Gallagher says they'll be replacing the number of trees axed, four-fold. The plan is to plant about 20,000 new trees, although they'll have a lot of growing to do.

“They'll be about 3-foot tall trees so they're going to be larger than normal, they're what they call a five gallon tree and we'll be maintaining them for 13 years,” Gallagher explained.

"It's always sad to lose trees - sad to lose them in the neighborhood," Collman said, but she also says the new trees may actually be a better fit for the new landscape of Snohomish County.

"One of the things here is going to be shorter trees - they are going to be trees that will live under power lines and not grow into them,” Collman concluded.

There is another concern— parking. Sound Transit will be adding 1,500 new parking spots including a parking garage at the Lynnwood Transit Center, but none of the spots will be at the busy Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.

Cox Media Group