Heritage Trees Have To Start Somewhere

This season at Friends of Trees, we will plant our millionth tree. Our millionth tree, like all of the trees and native shrubs we’ve planted, will be planted with the power of community volunteers. We’re telling their stories! Read more here.

Since he was a teenager, Reggie’s deep involvement with Friends of Trees has taken many forms.

Reggie’s tree planting has always been motivated by a sense of justice. When he was a teen, a neighbor convinced one of his parents to remove mature trees in their yard, leaving it barren and exposed.

“It was traumatic to walk up to the house one day and see a crane with a crowd of neighbors watching these beautiful trees be dismantled,” Reggie says. “They had provided a lot of good.”

A couple years later in 2008, Reggie volunteered for his first Friends of Trees planting event at Taliesen Park in Beaverton after seeing a posting in the newspaper.

“I suddenly had this opportunity to plant trees in my own neighborhood,” he says. “It was exciting to make a permanent, positive difference for my immediate environment.”

It was an Arbor Day planting event, and at the end of it, Reggie was given a 1-gallon Douglas fir to take home with him and plant where he pleased.

“That small free conifer really changed things for me. I realized, I can actually plant this at home in the yard where the trees had been and now I know how.”

After that, Reggie volunteered at Friends of Trees planting events in Beaverton whenever he could. When he went to Eugene for college, he started volunteering with the Eugene Branch.

Reggie at Friends of Trees events in 2015 and 2024.

At his first event in Eugene in 2012, he remembers planting a blue oak—a species native to California that will likely do well in Oregon as the climate warms—the first ever blue oak as a street tree in Eugene.

“It was a historic moment,” Reggie says. “Where do ‘heritage trees’ start? They have to start somewhere.”

History is another huge motivator for Reggie. He has a keen sense of our place in history, looking both into the past and forward into the future.

“I grew up surrounded by large trees. Mature red maples lined my street. Those are there thanks to someone who cared enough in the 1970s. We can’t take trees for granted. Each one was only an intentional decision by someone in the past, and we get to benefit from that effort now. It’s important that we continue making those decisions in the present.”

Reggie’s passion translated into action, and a deepening involvement as he entered adulthood. During his junior year of college, Reggie became a Crew Leader and went to even more planting events. His senior year, he interned with Friends of Trees in Eugene. His first job out of college, back in the Portland area, was as a Friends of Trees outreach assistant, going door to door to encourage people to sign up to have trees planted at their homes.

“I liked talking to people, I liked being an ambassador for the work. And it was a way to get familiar with more trees and see the region through an urban forestry lens.”

In 2017, Reggie began serving what became two consecutive AmeriCorps terms with Vancouver Urban Forestry, which partners closely with Friends of Trees. He discovered a sense of community around Vancouver. Meanwhile, he grew his experience. He participated in outreach, summer inspections and neighborhood coordinating. He still participates in every Beaverton event that he can.

“All things tree-related, Reggie’s the guy,” says Mario Catani, the Friends of Trees Neighborhood Trees Specialist for Washington County. “Personally, I am super inspired by him.”

Now, Reggie is an Environmental Technician with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, but he still does plenty of tree planting off the clock, with Friends of Trees in Beaverton and beyond.

“Reggie deserves a statue in Beaverton for all of the tree work he’s done there,” says Mario. “From working with Friends of Trees to hosting his own grassroots Highland neighborhood plantings to leading Pedalpalooza rides about tree policy, he has shown how much he deeply cares about connecting people with trees.”

“The community aspect keeps me coming back,” Reggie says. “When it seems like society is crumbling and you’re feeling a little helpless, getting people together to plant trees is a healing experience. I have a whole network of people who I know want to help, people who care about our future.”

Mario was particularly inspired that Reggie took the lead on replanting trees at Beaverton City Park after trees fell in the 2024 ice storm, gathering volunteers to plant sequoias and ponderosa pines to reforest the park’s historic grove. “You could tell he wanted to heal the wounds left by the storm,” Mario says.

Ever since his first planting back in 2008, Reggie has watched those trees grow, and he has grown along with them, nurturing a passion for climate justice, community building, and an optimism for the future that is built on direct action. He hopes that more people are inspired to make the world a better place.

“If we don’t do it now, we’ll be letting down future generations.”