By ALEX SILVERMAN
KIRO Radio

If you thought Seattle was full of tree huggers, it looks like you're right.

A new website, launched Tuesday by local filmmaker Ward Serrill, aims to collect stories about trees, starting in Seattle. "Then we'll gather stories from people around the world about their connection and relationship to trees."

Serrill says everyone has a favorite tree, and a tree story. "It might be the tree you climbed as a kid, it might be the tree you proposed to your wife under," he said.

I was skeptical, so I decided to ask around here at KIRO-FM. "It's a double-edged sword," said Dave Ross, speaking of his beloved Douglas fir. "It's beautiful, it's majestic, it represents history, and every time there's a windstorm, I worry about it."

"I have a favorite tree," said Northwest Nights host Frank Shiers. "My father, out of respect for the tree and wanting to preserve it, chopped the top off it, which enraged me when he did it."

>>Tell us about your favorite tree

Once he's collected enough stories, Serrill will turn them into a feature-length documentary. But, he says, it's tough to finance a movie these days, so he's doing something he claims has not been done before. "We're going to ask people, $5 at a time, to help create the movie. So at the end, we can say a couple hundred thousand people helped make the movie."

In just the first few hours the website was live, 12 people had shared their tree stories.

"What better place to start collecting tree stories than Seattle?" he said.

Follow Alex Silverman on twitter @alexsilverman

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• Tree Story Seattle
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