This year, love each other and the Earth by giving Friends of Trees Gift Trees for Valentine’s Day.
For a donation of just $35, Friends of Trees will plant a young native tree in honor of a loved one and send a gift acknowledgement card in their name. It’s a great cause and [...]
Tags: Audubon, Collins Sanctuary, Gift Trees, I-205, Metro
The East Burn restaurant at the 1800 block of Southeast Burnside has a delightfully juicy pork sandwich that is garnished with a potato pancake, onions, sour cream and apple chutney.
They also have a street tree outside that is going to die.
“If this was an intentional prune, it was done without adequate understanding of proper pruning [...]
Tags: Dr. Tree
**Special Alert: Friends of Trees needs your backbone and green initiative this Saturday**
Tree planting volunteers are needed Saturday Jan. 30 at the Centennial, Hazelwood and Mill Park neighborhood planting.
Similar to the slide show from last month’s Neighborhood Trees planting in Southeast Portland, sturdy boots and mostly a willingness to get dirty in your community is [...]
Tags: planting, volunteering
Day 15 on the Hebrew calendar, Jan. 30 this year, is Tu B’shvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees.
From Chabad.org:
This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.
We mark the day of Tu B’Shvat by eating fruit, particularly from [...]
Tags: fruit trees, planting, Tu B'shvat
The Center, Kerns, Laurelhurst and Sunnyside planting Saturday is becoming known as the Plant by Bike event of the year in Portland.
Of the 125 large stock trees that were planted, 36 were planted via three bike crews (see planting photos on Flickr).
There are two more Plant by Bike events this season, Feb. 20 in Piedmont [...]
By Jesse Batty
On Tuesday, Vancouver Urban Forestry held another TreeTalk workshop, this time on ‘Hazard Tree Risk Assessment.’
Native trees here in the Pacific Northwest, like Bigleaf Maple, Douglas-fir, Western Redcedar and Oregon White Oak, among others, are designed to withstand wind.
Trees that fail and fall are those that have shown some signs [...]
Tags: cedar, Douglas Fir, oak, Vancouver
By Andy Meeks
Our Neighborhood Trees program relies upon volunteer neighborhood coordinators (NCs) who canvass their neighborhoods to convince their fellow homeowners to plant trees in their planting strips.
We have amazing NCs—passionate, dedicated, and persuasive–but it’s not often that a neighborhood planting exceeds our sales expectations.
Case in point: This weekend’s planting event in the East [...]
Tags: planting
What used to be an old auto shop that also sold lawn mowers outside (see Google map) is now gone, leaving only a miniature earth moving machine and some trees in peril.
As the picture captured last week indicates, several of the trees have already been damaged on North Williams Ave., just north of Pix Patisserie.
The [...]
Tags: bike, development
There is a Hometree, a Tree of Souls, and even a Tree of Life.
Who knew the most popular, highest grossing film of all time would be about trees?
Friends of Trees is proud to endorse Avatar as its tree movie of the year.
Any idea what type of species that Hometree is?
–Toshio Suzuki
Tags: art
This new video created by long-time volunteer and former staffer Chris Runyard depicts the importance of keeping plastics out of waterways.
As Runyard will tell you, Friends of Trees and its Green Space Initiative (GSI) program plant trees and shrubs in restoration areas, responsibly using plastic tubes and tape to increase plant survivability.
This planting season GSI [...]
A group of investors is planning to build a green oasis in a desert this year and are naming it the Sahara Forest Project, according to National Geographic.
The project is meant to create not only a green oasis in the desert, but also a completely sustainable living model that provides its own energy and food.
Trees [...]
Last Thursday in the Lovejoy Room at city hall, the Urban Forestry Commission was briefed on almost $250,000 in proposed tree-related budget cuts facing the Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R).
As stated in a letter written by parks director Zari Santner that outlines all of the cuts, PP&R is prepared to cut four percent of its [...]
Over two years in the making, Portland’s Citywide Tree Project (CTP) is still moving towards completion, according to the city’s project team that reported the most recent status at yesterday’s Urban Forestry Commission meeting at City Hall.
Managed by the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability, the CTP is in stage three of four, which on their [...]
Planting by bike is no small chore.
It’s an impressive feat to transport 12-foot tall street trees and all the tools necessary to plant them using only pedal power.
This is what Friends of Trees volunteers mean when they say ‘Plant by Bike.’
While volunteers are encouraged to bike to all Friends of Trees plantings, this Saturday’s Neighborhood [...]
Tags: bike, street trees, video
Thanks to its two programs (Neighborhood Trees and Green Space Initiative), Friends of Trees has already planted 5,440 trees and shrubs this planting season. The same planting season that started Sept. 26.
With 32 plantings left, there is still plenty of time to roll up the sleeves and contribute to cleaning our communal air and water, [...]
By Kate Farrington
Friends of Trees, along with volunteers from the Nadaka Park work party, planted three Scarlet Oaks in Columbia View Park Jan. 9. They were planted to replace four mature cottonwoods that were recently removed.
The oaks will add a nice touch of red fall color to the park, which is currently dominated [...]
The often misunderstood, occasionally vandalized Friends of Trees logo is now available for purchase online. Check out the store.
Yes, with prices ranging from $15 for a t-shirt and $12 for a coffee mug, now proud gift givers and receivers can tout their appreciation of trees, all while knowing their purchase is helping the environment.
Special thanks [...]
Tags: slideshow
Anyone catch this CBS news video from late last year? Inspiring short piece about a man who took it upon himself to plant street trees in his L.A. neighborhood.
–courtesy Kris Day
Tags: canopy, street trees, video
According to many recent studies, slowly rising temperatures, carbon starvation and subsequent droughts are killing trees across Earth landscapes, reports The New York Times.
An excerpt: “Ecologists know how to grow trees, but we don’t know how to kill them realistically,” said Allen. “We don’t know the thresholds of tree mortality.”
The particular reasons a plant dies [...]
Tags: carbon
Action star Liev Shreiber and his extremely well-known wife Naomi Watts planted a Pistachio tree in Israel recently on behalf of the Jewish National Fund.
This was a family affair, complete with a short prayer but no water for the young sapling.
If you missed other editions in the ‘How (insert here) plant’ series: How President Obama [...]
By Angie DiSalvo
This blog posed an earlier question, “if a tree is cut down in the City, and nobody asks why, did it really happen?” The answer is an emphatic yes—and that particular tree was debated, considered, and permitted for removal under the watchful eye of Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) Urban Forestry.
The stump featured [...]
Tags: PBOT, PP&R, runoff, street trees
As part of a rotating installation art program at The Portland Building downtown, a local artist will introduce a life-size paper dress called the Mother Tree next month.
Helen Hiebert will work two hours every weekday, from Feb. 16 to March 12, until the installation funded by the Regional Arts & Culture Council is finished.
And she [...]
A new report made available today cites “strong evidence” that exposure to traffic can produce new cases of asthma and heart ailments, reports The New York Times.
An excerpt from the story:
Exhaust from cars and trucks exacerbates asthma in children and may cause new cases as well as other respiratory illnesses and heart problems resulting in [...]
The Portland Fruit Tree Project (PFTP) is expanding its winter pruning efforts to a year-round Tree Stewardship Program.
The more tree stewards, the better.
Winter pruning workshops will run this month and next month. Fruit tree selection and planting workshops begin in March, with other seasonal workshops to follow.
For more information on this program or PFTP, contact [...]
Tags: education, fruit trees, PFTP, street trees, yard trees
By Joe Poracsky
During the Spring 2010 term (March 29 to June 11) the Portland State University Geography Department will offer “The Urban Forest,” GEOG 448/548.
This 4-credit, partially-on-line course, will meet once or twice a week, Monday and Wednesday 3:15 – 5:05. There will also be two Saturday class meetings for field trips to local sites [...]
Portland Urban Forestry has two workshops in January—one for local arborists and another that will cover tree pruning as part of an ongoing series—in addition to a budget meeting and the monthly commission meeting.
Local tree care providers are encouraged to attend the free workshop Jan. 21 and get acquainted with city rules and regulations (City [...]
About 75 volunteers and community members gathered Saturday to plant over 160 trees with Friends of Trees via its Green Space Initiative (GSI) program.
The ceremonial planting—special dignitary shovels included—was the official start of a three-year project to plant along the I-205 Multi-Use Path.
Special representatives from the Oregon Department of Transportation, Metro and other elected officials [...]
Tags: canopy, I-205, Metro, ODOT, planting, runoff, shade, Verde, video
Reading this blog not only educates and makes a person better looking, now it saves one money as well.
As a thank you to our dedicated and growing group of online contributors, Friends of Trees wants to offer special discounts for home owners who