Nancy Buley wins 2014 Garry Oak Award

Nancy Buley
Friends of Trees board member Nancy Buley and her son Neil plant a tree during a recent visit to Nebraska, where she was honored with a prestigious national Arbor Day Award. (Photo by Carrie Benes)

A tireless advocate for urban and community forests, Nancy Buley has done more to help people across the country appreciate the value of a tree than perhaps any other person we know.

Nancy is the recipient of our 2014 Garry Oak Award, an honor that goes to a person who most embodies the spirit of community, volunteerism, good work and fun that Friends of Trees—and our mascot Garry Oak—strive to achieve every day.

(You can read about our Garry Oak Award honorable mention recipient Katie Dennis here, and all of our 2014 volunteer award winners here).

More than a volunteer, Nancy is part of the Friends of Trees family. She has served for many years as a member of our Board of Directors and is a constant presence at planting and outreach events.

As Communications Director for one of the nation’s premier tree growers, Boring, Oregon-based J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co., Nancy has been instrumental in advocating for planting more of the right trees in the right places not only in our city, but across the nation.

Thanks in large part to Nancy leadership, her nursery doesn’t just grow trees, they grow ideas. Like the idea that nurseries can connect with landscape architects, urban foresters, and nonprofits like FoT to share best practices and ensure community trees grow healthy and strong.

“Now I see a much greater appreciation for trees and for their value,” she says.

Nancy Buley and Earl Blumenauer
Nancy Buley with Congressman Earl Blumenauer. (FOT file)

Nancy says a major change in the past 20 years since she joined J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. is the idea of calculating the money that trees save our cities—by absorbing storm water and carbon dioxide, for example—and the jobs they create.

“This isn’t just pretty, this is dollars and cents,” she says. “With the numbers we have that show the value of trees, there’s progress being made.”

Nancy was honored on a national stage in April when the Arbor Day Foundation gave her the prestigious Frederick Law Olmsted Award in honor of her lifelong commitment to tree planting and conservation. (You can watch this video about her honor.)

“Buley is known by many in the forestry community as someone who builds and nurtures relationships,” the Arbor Day Foundation writes. “She is often described as a creative, out-of-the box thinker and facilitator who builds a ‘big tent’ when exploring issues and creatively visioning the future of urban and community forestry.”

Nancy serves on the policy committee for the Alliance for Community Trees, a group that unites organizations like Friends of Trees all over the country. She is also a Lifetime Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.