I-205 tree project, the back story

Partners in Community Forestry 2009

National Arbor Day Foundation Conference: Nov. 9

Providing insight on high-level contract negotiations, two architects of the I-205 tree planting project gave their creation story for a packed session at the National Arbor Day Conference.

Scott Fogarty, executive director of Friends of Trees, described the target corridor as an “environmental justice problem” because of its combination of some of the worst air pollution in the state, below average tree canopy and below average income levels.

During the actual Metro grant application process, it took some creative accounting and last-minute scrambling to conceptualize capitalizing trees as an asset, said Fogarty.

The end result now is a transformation of what was the Friends of Trees Natural Area Restoration program to the present Green Space Initiative program, which plants along highways, in addition to parks, schools and natural areas.

“What (the grant) did for Friends of Trees is it created a whole new program for us,” said Fogarty.

“Hopefully at the conference next year or the year after we’ll talk about how we capitalized trees, not why,” said Fogarty.

On the other end of this partnership with tree-planting nonprofit  is someone like Mike Rosen, associate director for the Bureau of Environmental Services, who admitted to working several years in asset management but never on a case that involved trees.

If green infrastructure investment grows, so grows the asset, yet the management assets aren’t necessarily expanding, said Rosen.

“There is a lot of pressure on the money for the trees,” he said.

Plantings along I-205 begin this winter and are viewable on our printable schedule. More information on the $400,000 Nature in Neighborhoods grant is available on the blog, as is a recap of the Arbor Day Foundation’s conference service project, which saw 30 trees planted along the bike path on Sunday.

–Toshio Suzuki