Trees of Friends

By Dave Adamshick, Friends of Trees Communication Specialist

As the newest staff member of Friends of Trees, I knew my new colleagues were serious about putting trees in the ground. Last year they planted over 41,000 trees and native shrubs in the Pacific Northwest. The best way to get to know someone is to ask them about what they’re passionate about: With the holidays around the corner, I kept the subject on trees and asked my new coworkers to share any special holiday tree rituals and memories.

Brighton West, Friends of Trees’ Deputy Director, climbs into his trusty Subaru with his wife, Kat, and his Golden Retriever, Rowan, and they “Head to the Historic Kirchem Tree Farm in Canby, Oregon, in early December, ride the tractor out into the far field and cut down a tree, drink hot chocolate, then strap it to our Subaru for the ride back to PDX.”

Whitney Dorer, Neighborhood Trees Manager, spends the Sunday after Thanksgiving ambling down the street a mile to the Optimist Club on Lombard to help support Roosevelt High School. There she and her partner, Amy, pick out a petite little Doug Fir, take it home, and decorate it while drinking egg nog and rum by the fire.

Erica Trimm, Friends’ Neighborhood Trees Senior Specialist and ISA Arborist, tells me thoughts of holiday trees take her back to her youth spent on a 50-acre farmstead located on the upper peninsula of Michigan. There she and her family piled into an actual red sleigh hooked up to her dad’s John Deere tractor and took a little trip to a distant part of the farm where the older trees grew. She remembers, “My mom and dad would then cut it down and we’d load it into the back seat of the sleigh and set it up and decorate it with Spanish moss, bow-tied cinnamon sticks and big pine cones in front of the fireplace.”

For me, I’m not really of the Christmas tree tradition. I enjoy Christmas trees—the scent, having a tree indoors seems a brilliant idea, bringing the calm of outdoors inside, so much so, I think about getting a tree every few years, but it seems like a lot of work, even though I’m sure there are starter kits for beginning tree trimmers. With December being such a busy month, decorating a tree would go unappreciated considering I’d rarely be at home to enjoy it.

Fortunately, there’re plenty of friends around who share the tradition and the knowledge of holiday trees, so I’m excused from the procuring, the decorating, the untangling of cords and finding the right replacement tiny lights: I can swoop in and enjoy the glow of a festivities present and the glow memories of trees past.

Dave Adamshick is the brand new communications specialist at Friends of Trees. You can reach him at [email protected]