108 Trees for Vancouver Avenue

By Ian Bonham

It sure felt like summer this weekend, but you wouldn’t know it by the sight of orange planting vests or the sounds of clanking shovels on North Vancouver Avenue. The grand finale of our 2012-13 planting season last Saturday was our hottest and sunniest planting yet, but by the afternoon 108 new trees (that’s over 2,000 square feet of future urban tree canopy!) were setting down roots and shading sidewalks on this highly traveled corridor.

Eighty-seven volunteers gathered at the Holy Redeemer School—a longtime partner for Friends of Trees plantings—on a sunny Saturday morning in the Piedmont Neighborhood. Holy Redeemer planted 13 new Japanese Stewartias with the help of Facilities Manager John Bagenstos, who has worked with Friends of Trees over many seasons to line the streets surrounding the school with street trees to improve the look and feel of the neighborhood. Bagenstos says he is “convinced that [trees] add street appeal to our site and have improved our relations with neighbors.”

Friends of Trees staff took extra care to work with homeowners, landlords, businesses and community partners such as Nabisco, Pacific Power, and Holy Redeemer to plant a street tree arboretum of 27 street tree species on Vancouver Avenue. On a two block section nestled between Farragut Park and the Columbia Slough, walkers, bikers and drivers can now see a myriad of street tree species appropriate for the Piedmont neighborhood’s small size planting strips. Uncommon species such as Franklinia, Strawberry Tree, and Chinese Pistache complement FOT street tree favorites such as Paperbark Maples and Cascaras on the two-block stretch.

FOT removed over 440 square feet of concrete—about the size of a small parking lot—for the weekend planting. In its place, 29 street trees were planted in planting strips that were previously barren and paved.

As usual for FOT plantings, nobody went home on an empty stomach. Our Piedmont Neighborhood partners—Holy Redeemer School and Nabisco Foods—went the extra mile to thank Friends of Trees volunteers for their hard work. The Nabisco Bakery donated 80 gift bags overflowing with cookies and crackers, and Holy Redeemer provided a home-cooked lunch.

Our tools are packed away, the gloves are in the wash, and it’s time to take a break from planting to sit back and watch our new trees grow! Here’s dreaming of November…

–Bonham is Vancouver Neighborhood Trees Coordinator for Friends of Trees.