Trees: Fighting climate change, growing community AND managing stormwater

In 2008, Friends of Trees and the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services embarked together on a transformative journey to boost green infrastructure in Portland. This initiative built on the Big Pipe project and used green infrastructure to reduce environmental impacts of urban stormwater. Along with creating bioswales, installing green roofs and adding new natural areas, this project mandated the planting of tens of thousands of trees in Portland.

This partnership resulted in 38,000+ street trees planted in Portland from 2008 – 2021, and these street trees intercept 9.6 million gallons of rain each year.¹ The trees planted through this partnership represent just a portion of all street and yard trees planted by Friends of Trees since 1989, which is more than 50,000 across the region.

Why all the fuss about stormwater? Learn more here.

This project didn’t just plant small trees and hope for the best. Then-Mayor Sam Adams prioritized planting and caring for large stock trees. Planting larger trees means, of course, that all of the benefits are realized much sooner than if smaller trees were planted.

Caring for the trees is equally important: Friends of Trees’ program includes post-planting support and care, which helps ensure that the trees we plant survive and thrive. Our monitoring program builds on that, telling us how many of the trees we plant survive—and our trees have an excellent survival rate: The survival rate for urban trees planted by Friends of Trees is 97% (based on Portland street trees planted during our last two seasons).

It’s not just stormwater. These trees deliver a triple bottom line, beyond stormwater management:

1. Most of the trees planted through this partnership are planted in historically under-served, low-canopy neighborhoods, bringing the countless benefits of trees to the neighborhoods that need them most.

2. The trees planted are now on the front lines of fighting climate change; each tree we plant will offset 13-48 lbs. of carbon annually.²

3. When planted the Friends of Trees way, with thousands of volunteers, trees grow community. And now more than ever, we need ways to come together as a community, and we need trees.

We’re not done! About 100,000 street tree planting locations remain available in Portland, not to mention throughout our service area that runs from Southwest Washington down to Lane County. We plant a lot of trees every year: Just last season we planted 3,500 street & yard trees and 46,000 seedlings and native shrubs. We know our region and our planet needs more trees and more community-building, and we look forward to enhancing and expanding the wide variety of partnerships we enjoy toward planting a greener and healthier future.