Community Tree Care Program Launches

by Jesse Batty

Last Saturday 25 volunteers came together to become Friends of Trees’ first group of Community Tree Care team members.  This is an exciting new program for FoT and our partners at Portland Parks & Recreation, focusing on the need for structural pruning of young street trees.   Volunteers first went through an indoor presentation on why and how to prune followed by an afternoon of hands-on pruning of over 125 young street trees in the Sellwood neighborhood.

Why prune street trees when they are young? By structurally pruning street trees at an early age, we can remove defects that may become hazardous in the long term. Early investment in young tree care is important to ensure that these urban trees continue to be assets, rather than liabilities.

FOT hopes to conduct future trainings and events involving structural pruning of young street trees and would love to have more people involved. If you are a Crew Leader,  Neighborhood Coordinator, or someone with a particular interest in tree care and you’d like to join in on the pruning fun, we’d love for you to attend one of our future Community Tree Care trainings.  It’s a great way to further your knowledge of trees in our city.

Jesse is a certified arborist and Neighborhood Trees Specialist with Friends of Trees.