Street tree inventories going on all over Portland

By Kate Farrington

Want to get more trees planted in your neighborhood, better maintain local trees, and grow our knowledge base about our urban forest? Then you should check out the neighborhood street tree inventories being conducted this summer in the Sellwood-Moreland, Eastmoreland, Kenton, Overlook, and St. Johns neighborhoods in Portland.

Local community groups and interested neighborhood volunteers are mobilizing to inventory street trees, looking at tree species, size, health, site conditions, and available planting spaces. Portland Urban Forestry staff will train and guide volunteers through the inventory process. They’ll also analyze the collected data and present results to neighborhood stakeholders. The result will be a Neighborhood Stewardship Plan.

Lots of volunteers will be needed to collect this wealth of data on Portland’s street trees. Three main volunteer roles need to be filled. First, volunteers are needed to collect tree data. No prior tree knowledge is required for this role. Second, if you have tree identification knowledge and want to take on more responsibility, you can be a tree inventory team leader. Lastly, if you are an arborist, you are needed as an Arborist-on-Call for inventory sessions to answer questions and problem-solve with teams in the field.

If you are interested in learning more about trees and helping with this inventory effort, register to volunteer for a specific inventory day on the Urban Forestry web site. For more information, contact Danielle Fuchs or Angie DiSalvo at 503-823-4484 or [email protected]

–Farrington is a Neighborhood Trees Specialist at Friends of Trees.