Building on a Foundation of Equity Work in Eugene & Springfield

One of the great things about kicking the season off with pruning events is that you get to see the progress of trees planted in years past, and it provides a renewed vision of how each new tree will grow and provide benefits to the community.

“We were pruning trees in a neighborhood north of downtown Springfield,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke, “and it’s really satisfying to see street trees in almost every available spot, spots that were empty of trees a few years ago.”

Our Friends of Trees Eugene team just finished 4 volunteer pruning events before they move into the planting season.

“It’s great to see the trees doing well, and pruning is just so much fun,” Erik says. “I had a blast pruning some climate resilient trees we planted back in 2013, all live oaks.”

The trees that volunteers pruned had already been pruned once, but thanks to funding from the USDA Forest Service grant, we were able to prune them again.

“Trees really need more than one round of pruning,” Erik says. “It’s a very cost effective way to make sure that the trees achieve a healthy structure. And we want to prune them before they get pruned by a truck or an ice storm.”

Caring for trees is just as important as planting them, especially when it comes to addressing areas in need of trees. Planting and caring for trees where they’re needed most is foundational to our work in Eugene and Springfield, even before the Eugene Tree Foundation joined Friends of Trees.

“We’ve always planted with equity in mind,” says Eugene-Springfield Program Manager Taylor Glass. “There are so many places that need trees and there’s still so much work to be done.”

Planting season is just around the corner, and the USDA grant is funding much of this season’s planting in West Eugene and Springfield, as they are included in the Justice40 initiative, which serves communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

“When you go to certain areas and you only see one or two trees on a block, you can feel it,” Erik says. “It feels good to plant trees in those places.”