By Teri Ruch
Mix about 20 bicycles, a dozen carts and trailers, 190 big trees, planting tools, the perfect pre-spring morning and 75 volunteers—from babies to boomers—and what do you get?
A fun planting day that ended with a community potluck and new trees to clean our rivers, add shade to neighborhoods, and [...]
Tags: BES, bike, G2G, planting, runoff, street trees, yard trees
It has been a few years now and Portland continues to develop its infrastructure of street swales and curb extensions.
The Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) developed and is implementing these runoff-collecting tools along Portland’s streets in an effort to keep the Willamette River cleaner.
Street swales and curb extensions are also the next generation of street [...]
Tags: BES, bike, G2G, hornbeam, maple, runoff, street trees, tupelo
The iPhone application for street tree lovers finally exists. Of course, presently, it only exists for New York City street tree lovers.
Trees Near You chronicles all of the 500,000 street trees in New York City, providing species type, size and the estimated environmental and economic benefits provided.
As shown on the application’s Web site, users can [...]
Tags: carbon, runoff, street trees
A new interactive landing site for the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) informs residents of runoff management options and monitors results for any specific property in the city.
A Portland home owner can type in their address and find out how much their average monthly stormwater bill is and how many thousands of gallons a [...]
Tags: BES, G2G, planting, runoff, street trees, yard trees
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 [...]
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 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
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
Portland’s newest downtown park, Director Park, is getting some new street trees right now—about 15.
Situated one block from Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Park Blocks, the park’s innovative design has spread to its planting treatments.
Notice the steps below, which include layers of gravel and intricate stone placement on top of the typical planting height (pictures [...]
Tags: canopy, planting, runoff, street trees
Every year during the rainy season, flooding on the Oregon Coast is a possibility. This letter to the editor published Friday in The Daily Astorian provides local insight in the cause and effect relationship cutting trees has with heavy precipitation:
Am I the only one who thinks it’s crazy for the county and the Oregon Department [...]
Tags: runoff
The Oregonian reports this morning that the Environmental Protection Agency is butting heads with Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services over the Big Pipe and additional Columbia River safeguards.
The EPA wants to expand secondary treatment of the sewage and rainwater mix before it joins the river, while the local agencies [...]
Partners in Community Forestry 2009
National Arbor Day Foundation Conference: Nov. 9
With an emphasis on combining both ‘grey’ and ‘green’ approaches to improving storm runoff control, the Bureau of Environmental Service’s Tabor to the River (T2R) program hopes to plant 3,500 trees by 2023.
That is, of course, if the funding becomes more secure, said BES Environmental [...]
Tags: Arbor Day '09, BES, G2G, runoff, T2R
-Nov. 5, Thu. 10-11 a.m., is Rally for the National Conference with Scott Fogarty
This webcast, sponsored by the Alliance for Community Trees (ACT), features Fogarty, executive director of Friends of Trees, who will discuss the upcoming opportunities at the National Arbor Day Foundation.
-Nov. 7, Sat. 9 a.m. -4 p.m., is Crew Leader Training with Friends [...]
Circa the 1990s, this video produced by PGE and featuring narration by the great James DePreist, outlines Portland’s street tree history from day one to the creation of Friends of Trees.
Watch our other videos on our Youtube page.
–TS
Tags: canopy, carbon, habitat, planting, runoff, Seed the Future, shade, street trees, video
In a study of sold homes on the east side of Portland, a new report says street trees add an average of $8,870 to sales prices and reduce time-on-market by almost two days.
The report, which will be published in Landscape and Urban Planning, is the first of its kind to examine the “effect of urban [...]
The Joinery—a long-time Friends of Trees partner and local maker of exquisite wood furniture (see left)—was recently honored with a Green Power Leadership Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA Green Power Partners use 100 percent green power and demonstrate a dedication to environmentally sensitive business practices.
“We like to be on the forefront of new ideas [...]
The BBC and London Times report this week that the Institute of Mechanical Engineers has a new study on geo-engineering. One main tenet of the report: artificial trees have the potential to remove CO2 thousands of times faster than real trees—those pretty green things that also absorb runoff, provide habitat, create shade and generally [...]