By SHANNON PRIEBE

The City's plan to plant 20,000 trees by Earth Day 2000, April 22, is having a direct impact on neighborhoods throughout the City, particularly the Piper's Creek Watershed area in Northwest Seattle.

The plan, known as the Millennium Woods Legacy Project, allows individuals to purchase trees from local garden centers with a $25 coupon. Groups of three or larger who want to plant 10 or more trees in their neighborhoods can also apply to the City for free trees, including delivery.

In Northwest Seattle, a group of community activists known as the Carkeek Community Action Project or C-CAP are participating in the Woods Legacy Project in hopes of creating a better environment for salmon in Piper's Creek.

It has been documented that trees reduce and slow down urban runoff and soil erosion and also act as a filtering system, providing clean water to the creek and watershed.

A number of students from schools in the Piper's Creek Watershed area have been involved in spreading information about the Woods Legacy project. Students from Broadview-Thomson Elementary School recently went door-to-door asking local residents for support of the program. Students from Pacific Crest School have also been distributing information on how to obtain trees and Greenwood Elementary School's fourth graders designed posters for the project as well.

This is the first time the City has been able to offer support for citizens to plant trees on private property. The trees not only may be planted on private property, they may also be planted in street rights-of-way, city parks and other publicly-owned property.

Individual applications for trees funded through the Woods Legacy project are due by March 15.

For more information, call Nancy Malmgren of the Carkeek Advisory Council at 363-4116.