Saluting our mayors

Friends of Trees is grateful to our region’s mayors for supporting our work to bring communities together to plant trees in Northwest cities.

Mayor Charlie Hales
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales with Friends of Trees Executive Director Scott Fogarty, Dec. 2012

We thank Portland Mayor Charlie Hales for more than a decade of planting trees—the trees he planted 15 years ago provide welcome shade in Portland neighborhoods today—and for his continuing support as a Friends of Trees board member. To the right is a photo of Mayor Hales at a December 2012 Friends of Trees board and staff holiday party.

We thank Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt for planting with us and the Portland Timbers on Jan. 5, 2013 to launch the MLS team’s 2013 Dribble Oregon tour. We also appreciate Vancouver Urban Forestry’s partnership with Friends of Trees to add trees to city neighborhoods. Pictured below are Portland Timbers players Ryan Kawulok and Brent Richards at the first 2013 Dribble Oregon planting with Mayor Leavitt.

Dribble Oregon Plantings 2013
Portland Timbers players present Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt with a Timbers scarf at the first planting of Dribble Oregon on Jan. 5, 2013 (David Blair)

We thank Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy for planting with Friends of Trees several times since we established our Eugene-Springfield office a year and a half ago, and for including FOT in her 2013 State of the City address on Jan. 9, 2013. The following is an excerpt:

“I want to note here that we should all pay attention to our urban forest. Because of budget cutbacks the City has not been keeping up with its past tree-planting practices. As old trees die, new trees are not being planted at the same rate. There is a significant lag. This is something you and I could do together with Friends of Trees. If every family planted one tree a year in our city, we could begin to recover what we have lost.”

April 7, 2012 Arbor Day Planting in Eugene
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, April 7, 2012 (Jessyca Burke)

You can read Mayor Piercy’s entire State of the City address here. Pictured at right is Mayor Piercy at Friends of Trees’ Arbor Day planting in Eugene on April 7, 2012.

We have also been honored to welcome Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle, Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis, and Tigard Mayor Craig Dirksen at our tree plantings and annual leadership luncheon.

Support from our cities’ leaders is critical to our success. Friends of Trees looks forward to decades of planting to come and to the many benefits that will increase as each new tree grows!