Category: Adult Urban Forestry Program
Noticing Nature
Communications intern Tony reflects on learning to prune with Friends of Trees
What I like about pruning is that when you spend time with trees, you develop a deepening of sensory experience that stays with you as you learn to recognize names and patterns in nature. It has a slowing down effect. And when looking at trees individually, you realize that each tree is full of intricate detail that reveals a mini ecosystem world.
Thanks to the Adult Urban Forestry Program, Friends of Trees has given me access to this relationship with living things that I wouldn’t otherwise have. I’m excited to one day share this with my little kids. It’s clear they love—and need—to get dirty and play with living things too. My family lives in a sixth floor apartment. We’ve tried growing things on our balcony, with limited success. We have containers of soil to scoop and dig in, and have discovered a few shade-tolerant flowers that can live up here. My brother gave me a maple tree that lives in a bucket and is leafing out in the April weather.
From six floors up, the human-made city has patterns that, like nature, can have a certain calming effect if you let your mind dilate—just try not to think about goods and services moving in a loop forever! Nature has fractal complexity in abundance, and it is slower. Ants, when observed, move goods and services in a loop forever, too. But those ants are crawling over each other and don’t seem to be taking it personally. The natural world has so much to offer when we take our time with it. You notice the rustle of leaves, the interplay of light and shadow, you touch moss and smell things.
Looking at nature can produce “Soft Fascination,” a term coined by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, who pioneered the study of how natural environments affect psychology. Soft Fascination describes a kind of observational complexity that invites exploratory, effortless attention and open relaxed awareness. Your mind can wander through details at its own pace, noticing more and more subtlety the longer you look.
For me, pruning with Friends of Trees combines mental relaxation with problem-solving. You get this nice interplay between mental modes. When you prune, the first part is always about taking a step back, relaxing the mind, engaging the senses, and just taking the whole of the tree in. And our pruning and planting events are never about getting as much done as possible. They’re about meaningful connections with trees and with each other.
My kids are still a bit too young to join me at pruning events. For now, they explore nature through our balcony, parks, and a community garden. My four-year-old daughter is intrigued by the idea of pruning, and has requested “pruners that are the right size for kiddos.” Lately, when I pin my nametag on, she asks if I’m going to see “Friends in Trees,” (her term is far too cute for me to correct her yet!). I tell her, “one day soon, I’ll bring you with me.”
Planting Day With Better Chances
Youth plant seven trees on Marine Drive, FOT communications intern Tony S. reports
I pull into a narrow strip of land on Marine Drive in North Portland on a crisp January morning. Today we are planting seven trees with 10 BIPOC youth from the nonprofit Better Chances. We trickle in. There are going to be quite a few of us. This land will be developed into housing, and we are here to help add some extra foliage for cooling, shade, and the many benefits trees provide.
I’m here as a participant in the Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training Program (AUF), and this is my first assignment as a communications intern. I’m joining two Friends of Trees staff and four fellow AUF graduates in leadership roles who are here to facilitate the planting.
Smoke rises from a little fire barrel. It helps to dispel some of the morning chill. A few kids in their early teens gravitate to the edge of a frozen stream nearby. They throw sticks onto the ice in hopes of a satisfying sploosh. In the clearing is a table with plenty of snacks and supplies. It’s a cozy vibe.
Better Chances, founded by Kadir Abdullahi and Talietha Mathis, focuses on academic support and vibrant extracurricular activities that build positive youth development. They do things such as play basketball, go to BBQ cook outs, and white-water rafting. There is focus on curiosity, play and sensory enjoyment of nature.
After a planting demonstration led by Thomas Meinzen, Neighborhood Trees Specialist with Friends of Trees, we split into groups to get some more individualized practice. We definitely have a few side quests. A frog is found and relocated to the edge of our planting area. Some holes are in the wrong spot! They need to be moved. One of our trees comes out of the pot with a tight root-bound ball. Two energetic kids step up. They put in extra effort sawing out a slice of the ball and freeing the circling roots to grow outward. Thankfully we have a lot of helping hands for our tasks.
By noon, the frost has melted in the warm mild sun, and we have most of our trees in the ground standing upright. The root-bound tree ended up chosen to be swapped for a sturdier one at a later date—a good learning example!
It is blissful to be out in nature, just playing and learning in a multigenerational group. I think there’s a real sense of ownership and placemaking in planting trees together. Housing will go up here and things will look different soon, but the trees will be here and they will accompany us through time. Over the years, these kids will be able to watch the trees they planted grow as they grow.
Thanks to everyone at Better Chances for planting with us!
Authentic Stories Illuminate Pathways
Updates from the Adult Urban Forestry & Restoration Training Program
For Rudy, helping people find their path into the future means reflecting on the past. Rudy Roquemore manages Friends of Trees Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training Program, which brings together people interested in a career in the green sector.
The Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training Program takes place in partnership with the Connecting Canopies Program, engaging adults in an urban forestry curriculum and placing them in an internship with Friends of Trees or an affiliated partner organization. The program is designed to engage underrepresented communities and address barriers to participation in the field of urban forestry. In an effort to do so, participants are paid for their time both learning and working throughout the program with the hope of creating pathways to actual jobs.
Providing pathways into the green workforce is one of the ways we can help create the next generation of responsible stewards working in our urban forests. How do we do that? One piece is exposing people to roles they can have in this line of work, and doing it in an authentic way so that people really understand their options.
The program just finished its ten-week curriculum, with each module featuring a different guest presenter and topic. Diversity of subject matter is crucial. Some things you would certainly expect, like the benefits trees provide to communities, how to plant and care for a tree, and how to identify native plants. But the curriculum goes beyond that to include things like environmental justice and financial literacy.
This is where Rudy’s approach comes in, inviting guests to share their own ethno-autobiographies to the cohort of participants.
“The simplest way to describe it is telling your story authentically—the totality of who you are and why you’re here in this moment, from your own ancestry to the places you’ve been. I want people to be as honest as possible when telling their stories. “
This honesty and authenticity gives AUF participants a more realistic sense of the pathways into the green workforce.
“Everyone has their own spin on it,” Rudy says. “There’s not actually a conventional path. These unique aspects of people’s stories allow for connections with the participants. It can really build their confidence to hear these stories.”
“It was really valuable to see people’s pathways to where they are now and the different roles in the sector,” says Air, one of the AUF participants.
Participants, too, had the opportunity to share their stories. Rudy noted that having folks who have been together for several months through the Connecting Canopies program allows for bonds and relationships to be well-established by the time they’re at AUF. “They’re more comfortable sharing and asking questions.”
“I liked having face to face time,” says Akilah, one of the AUF participants. “I found myself being more comfortable speaking in groups.”
Now, the participants move into the internship phase of the Connecting Canopies program, with placements at places like Portland Parks & Recreation and right here at Friends of Trees, equipped with the perspective that an unconventional path can lead you right to where you want to be.
“Everyone deserves beautiful trees”
A pruner’s journey through our workforce training program and beyond
What does a chef have in common with an arborist? For Joseph Nontanovan, both roles embody the intersection of creativity and technical skill. Before the pandemic, Joseph was working as a catering chef. After the world shut down, he found himself spending more and more time in his garden in Oakland.
“I got really into plants,” he says. “It was a fun hobby, and it made sense to go from working with vegetables in a kitchen setting to working with plants in the garden.”
Joseph’s creative nature led him to a keen interest in landscape design. After moving to Portland, he enrolled in Portland Community College’s Landscape Technology program.
“When I took my first class on trees, I just started nerding out. It was amazing to go from not being able to distinguish between species to little by little knowing more and more.”
While working at the PCC Learning Garden, Joseph encountered folks from the Portland Fruit Tree Project who told him about Connecting Canopies. Connecting Canopies offers a 9-month training in urban forestry and restoration to BIPOC adults. Part of the curriculum includes 10 weeks with Friends of Trees’ Adult Urban Forestry & Restoration Training Program, focusing on a community approach to planting trees.
Learning about Connecting Canopies helped Joseph decide to pivot from studying landscape tech to arboriculture. His time in the program was especially valuable for the sense of community.
“It’s rare to find a program where you get to build such a sense of camaraderie,” Joseph says. “Working with other folks from marginalized communities, it was a uniquely safer space.”
After completing his internship at Honl Tree Care and getting exposure working at a large form arborist company, Joseph decided to find his own niche and start his own company, Thomas & Sons Tree Care, which focuses on fine pruning ornamental and fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. He’s completed his arboriculture certificate from PCC, is an associate member of the Aesthetic Pruner’s Association, and is completing his hours to become an ISA certified arborist.
“Aesthetic pruning satisfies the artistic and technical aspects of myself,” he says. “And there are a lot of shaggy Japanese maples out there!”
Joseph has been building his business locally by describing himself as an artist-technician and posting before and after videos on Instagram and Nextdoor. He’s been flooded with responses. Working in his own neighborhood gives him more time and capacity to offer services on a sliding scale.
“I really love pruning trees, so even if folks need a discount, I’m just happy to do it,” Joseph says. “Everyone deserves beautiful trees.”
You can see Joseph’s work and reach out to him on the Thomas & Sons website, Instagram, and Youtube.
Get To Know Connecting Canopies
This coalition creates new pathways into the green workforce
In January, a new cohort will begin Friends of Trees’ Adult Urban Forestry and Restoration Training Program, a 10-week curriculum and internship designed to increase career opportunities for underrepresented communities in the urban forestry and natural area restoration fields. Many of those participants come to us through Connecting Canopies, which offers a 9-month training in urban forestry and restoration to BIPOC young adults. Their time with Friends of Trees is one piece of that training, focused on a community approach to planting trees.
Connecting Canopies is a coalition formed by the Blueprint Foundation, the Urban Greenspaces Institute (UGI) and The Nature Conservancy with the goal to create a more equitable canopy cover in the Portland metro region and beyond. Their approach is twofold. First they want to address many of the financial and policy barriers that keep many people from access to trees and their benefits. UGI analyzes tree codes and policies, both to open up conversations with government entities and to select project sites based on where trees are most needed.
Second, they want to increase community knowledge and reduce barriers to trees and green infrastructures by providing access into the green workforce for BIPOC communities. Their workforce development program creates real world opportunities for participants by placing them with five training partners over the course of the program.
“When people work in the forestry or restoration field, their skills and knowledge trickle down into their community,” says Theresa Huang, Partnerships & Planning Manager at the Urban Greenspaces Institute. “We’re hoping that this will help the community keep the trees that they have and encourage them to plant more.”
In addition to working with Friends of Trees on community forestry and restoration, these 12 trainees work with the Portland Fruit Tree Project to learn about planting and caring for fruit trees, with Meadowsweet Gardens to learn about landscape design, and with Audubon and Ash Creek Forest Management to learn about habitat restoration.
“Getting into the field is really hard,” Theresa says. To overcome some of those barriers, trainees are paid for their time. Connecting Canopies was started to be community led and center community voices, so that these BIPOC trainees are able to enter a workforce that they were typically left out of.
For Theresa, the partnership with Friends of Trees makes perfect sense. “When you think about community forestry, you think about Friends of Trees,” Theresa says. “They’ve nurtured so many people who have grown to love trees.”