Building a Community Coalition

Our $12 million grant is funding community equity work in Portland, Gresham, Eugene, and Springfield

We believe everyone deserves to experience the benefits of trees in urban landscapes. Trees and green spaces keep neighborhoods cool, support pollinators and ecosystem services, and even bolster mental health and well-being. Yet despite these benefits, tree canopy cover isn’t equitably distributed across communities and geographies, dividing most cities into high- and low-canopy neighborhoods. These low-canopy neighborhoods are often home to historically disadvantaged communities, who now bear the brunt of climate impacts when extreme weather strikes.

Last year, an 11-member coalition led by Friends of Trees was awarded a $12 million Urban and Community Forestry Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This program is investing over $1 billion nationwide to help increase equitable access to nature and the benefits of urban trees for communities most impacted by climate change, pollution, and environmental hazards.

Over the course of the five-year grant, our coalition will work to empower disadvantaged, low-canopy neighborhoods to expand their tree canopy by participating in urban forest planning processes, creating culturally-relevant educational and knowledge-exchange opportunities, and hosting community planting and tree care events.

The driving theme of the grant project is coalition building. We are so excited to work closely with our 10 community partners on this project: APANO, Black Parent Initiative, City of Gresham, City of Portland, Columbia Slough Watershed Council, Connecting Canopies, Depave, POIC, Verde, and Wisdom of the Elders.

Launching a project of this size is no simple task, and the coalition has been hard at work thoughtfully creating strategies and collaboratively planning activities to make this work a reality. The partners have assembled a coordinating committee and are collectively working on a coalition charter to set the course for the project.

Engaging community members is fundamental to the success of this project, which is why the coalition includes such a diverse array of community organizations, each with their own unique connection to the people they serve. To support planning and implementing our collaborative community engagement efforts, we’ve added a Community Coordinator to the team—Sia Hanna!

“For me, community engagement is all about commitment and relationship,” Sia says. “It’s a commitment to working alongside community members in our collective efforts to improve well-being and vibrancy within and between people and the places we call home. I believe humans are part of the ecology of place. If we are not deeply tending to each, then we do a disservice to both.”

The efforts behind the scene have led to the beginning of work on the ground: Friends of Trees has already hosted four pruning events in Eugene and Springfield that, without USDA funding, would not have been possible.

Now, we move into planting season, and our coalition project is a huge part of it. This grant is helping fund our upcoming planting events in Eugene, Springfield, NE Portland, and Gresham.

You can join us for one of two volunteer planting events on Saturday, November 23rd. We have a green space planting at the gorgeous Wilkes Creek Headwaters in NE Portland, where we will plant native shrubs to enhance this important natural area.

We will also be planting trees in Gresham neighborhoods, helping to build much needed urban canopy that will shade community members. Before the planting event that Saturday afternoon, we have a Crew Leader training—you can sign up to help lead planting crews!

Check out our calendar to sign up to volunteer.

Funding for this project provided by the USDA Forest Service, Urban and Community Forestry Program. USDA and Friends of Trees are equal opportunity providers and employers.