Category: Climate adaptive trees
New Trees Tell a New Story at the Library
Volunteers planted a model for a climate resilient urban forest at the Tigard Public Library.
There’s nothing quite like sitting under a tree with a good book. At the Tigard Public Library, there are 20 new trees for community members to enjoy, and the species were chosen to stand the test of time.
This month, volunteers gathered on a sunny Saturday morning to plant trees in an empty field right outside their library. The Tigard library had reached out to Friends of Trees to design a planting that would serve as a model for a climate resilient urban forest. The field was once an apple orchard, but has sat empty and unused for decades.
“We can change the story of this field,” says Library Director Halsted Bernard. “We can bring in trees to remediate soil and bring in wildlife.”
“It’s a little unusual for us to plant large stock trees all in one place to serve as habitat restoration,” says Mario Catani, Friends of Trees’ Neighborhood Trees Specialist for Washington county. “These trees get to serve as an arboretum of sorts, as habitat restoration along Fanno Creek, and as a model of tree species we expect to do well in the face of climate change.”
When it came to tree selection, Mario looked south. Not just to our Eugene Branch and their work planting climate trees, but all the way to California, where species like the blue oak have proved their ability to withstand extreme temperature swings. These species are used to seeing temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more, which is becoming more and more common here.
“Especially with climate change, we need to plant with a decades-long view,” Mario says. “The trees that we plant now are going to be living in a completely different world. We’re already seeing certain species start to struggle with extreme summer heat and winter storms.”
The blue oak (Quercus douglasii) is native to Southern Oregon and California. Named for the gray-blue tint on its leaves, the blue oak is very drought tolerant. It’s a keystone species for Nuttall’s woodpeckers, nuthatches, plain titmice and so much more.
“It’s a tree we would plant more of if they were easier to source,” Mario says. “They grow anywhere from 20 to 60 feet, so I think they’d make an excellent street tree.”
Another species volunteer planted at the library was the ponderosa pine, which is native to the region but has a huge range from New Mexico to Washington.
“Ponderosas are resilient, hardy, and fast-growing, but they’re huge,” Mario says. “Luckily, we have the space in a site like this. We should plant them whenever we can.”
Volunteers also planted coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia, a sentimental favorite of Mario’s), incense cedars, bald cypresses, quaking aspens, and Oregon white oaks. Library patrons will be able to watch them grow, and beyond that, engage with library programming around the new forest.
“I liked that all the volunteers came from the library,” Mario says. “They’ll get to enjoy the trees that they planted and feel more connected to their space.”
“We’re excited about the possibilities of expanding library services into our backyard, into outdoor space” says Amber Bell, the library’s Readers Services Manager.
Mario is also excited about all the ways these trees will provide for the community.
“These will be mother trees,” he says. “People can come and collect acorns and plant their own climate trees!”
Planting for climate change in Eugene? Consider the Mediterranean
Would it surprise you to hear that Eugene has a Mediterranean climate? Warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters are typical of the Mediterranean and, yes, Eugene. And as the climate crisis progresses and changes even more, this likely will become more so. Which means, when we think about which trees to plant, we need to think about trees that will survive and thrive in this climate, and it’s not always the same trees we planted 100 or even 25 years ago.
We’ve been experimenting with planting climate adaptive trees in the Eugene area for more than 10 years now. We look for trees that are adapted to summer drought, as opposed to trees that receive summer rainfall in their native land (like red maple or flowering dogwood); we also take into consideration other ingredients necessary for successfully growing trees, such as Eugene’s poorly drained soils.
Some of these trees that are native elsewhere can be hard to get here, so we take a three phase approach to acquire climate adaptive trees for planting:
We first identify the climate resilient trees available in local nurseries, trees like silver linden or Oregon white oak, and we plant more of them.
Next we look at trees suited for climate change that are available in nurseries outside our area and we import them, sometimes from as far as from central California, or grow them locally, trees like chitalpa or valley oak.
And for our third tier trees, we look at trees not currently available from most nurseries, trees like chinquapin or canyon live oak, and we partner with local nurseries to grow them or we learn to grow them ourselves. We collect and purchase seeds or we buy seedlings (aka, “liners,” in nursery-speak), and learn to grow them to the size and shape suitable for planting on Eugene streets. Since we began this work, some climate resilient trees that weren’t widely available are now grown locally, such as Persian Ironwood or Chinese pistache.
We now plant more climate resilient trees than ever, and get all our trees from Oregon nurseries and our own gardens. We have partnerships with local nurseries that take seeds or liners and grow them out to planting size. We also try a more personal approach: Friends of Trees Eugene Tree Team members Erik and Jeff try growing some of these species in their own yards. As you might expect, this final tactic involves a bit of trial and error; however, we’re pretty pleased to share that more than 25 trees grown from this method we like to call the Tree Team Yard Strategy are now successfully growing in the Eugene area including: Atlas cedar (native to North Africa); Oregon myrtle (though Oregon is in the name, strong specimens are not commonly found in local nurseries); canyon live oak; and California black oak.
Interested in doing some experimenting in your own yard? Drop us a line and we’ll share some seeds or liners to try planting in the fall!
Photo: An Oregon myrtle planted at I-105 Rose Garden, grown from seed by FOTE’s Jeff Lanza.