Category: Natural Areas
Do you have a tree story?
We’re looking for great stories about your tree or your tree planting experience
Thirty years = A LOT of trees, and a lot of tree stories. We’d love to hear yours.
Trees are often witness to or part of life’s milestones, such as anniversaries, births, proposals, commemorations. Trees are always there, growing and changing as we grow and change.
Do you have a tree at your home planted with Friends of Trees? How has that tree played a role in your family, during time in your home, in your life? Did you have an unforgettable planting experience with us, perhaps for a special occasion or in honor of a special person?
Trees are amazing and they are part of amazing stories. Do you have an amazing or heartwarming or special tree story about a Friends of Trees tree or tree-planting experience? We’d love to hear it, please contact Kathy Armstrong (kathya@friendsoftrees.org; 503-467-2512) with your tree story. Thank you!
THANK YOU! Onward to 2019 …
A giant thank you to everyone who donated to trees + community during our year-end campaign!
Your support is absolutely crucial in order for us to engage so many volunteers and plant so many trees in so many places. Ever wonder how we use your donation? Please join Garry Oak in exploring how your donation makes a difference.
Happy New Year!
Welcoming the return of the sun … with trees
“Each Friends of Trees planting event is a series of moments, whether it’s somebody seeing a lizard, or a kid planting their first tree, or people who just happened to be walking by pitching in to help. One of the best moments is at the end of the day when everyone has a big smile on their face because they’ve really accomplished something: they planted trees.” Matt, Friends of Trees volunteer
Did you know that the oldest tree in the world is 5,062 years old? It’s a Pinus longaeva (Great Basin bristlecone pine) and it’s in California.
While we can’t claim with certainty that Friends of Trees just planted the newest tree in the world, it is possible, at least for a moment on any given Saturday, October-April, that we did indeed just plant the newest tree in the world. That’s another Friends of Trees moment: adding a tree–to our region, to our planet. And there are more than 50,000 moments like that every tree planting season.
As we celebrate the Winter Solstice and welcome the return of the sun we’re thinking about the various ways the shortest day of the year is celebrated, especially, of course, the celebrations that include trees. We’ve learned that some Winter Solstice celebrations include specific trees that have specific meanings; for instance, for some observants evergreens symbolize continuity of life, and oak trees symbolize endurance, strength, protection, and good luck.
We love this. Here’s how Friends of Trees interprets these special meanings of evergreens and oaks:
Continuity of life: trees provide oxygen!
Endurance, strength: trees can live to be hundreds, thousands of years old.
Protection: trees clean our air and water and help make us healthy.
Good luck: to me, it’s clear: the more trees we have, the luckier we are.
A recent paper by U.S. Forest Service scientists* reported that metropolitan areas in the U.S. are losing more than 30 million trees each year. This is tragic, but thanks to Friends of Trees’ friends and supporters, we’re not fretting, we’re taking action and tackling this loss, together, one moment at a time, one tree at a time – at more than 50,000 moments, and 50,000 trees, every year. You can help us take positive action through making a donation to Friends of Trees today! Your support helps grow our urban canopy, restore sensitive natural areas, and helps build community through planting trees – together.
Happy Solstice to you and yours, we look forward to longer days, the return of the sun, and more trees – join us!
‘Tis the season for Give!Guide – a delicious way to donate
Willamette Week’s Give!Guide is an annual fundraiser for Friends of Trees + other great causes
Give!Guide runs through December 31st and is a great way to learn about organizations that are doing amazing work on behalf of people, places, critters and causes (including trees + community, of course ;). G!G features Big Give Days when donors get a shot at fabulous incentives like Trail Blazers tickets, vacation packages, and more. Please give, and THANK YOU!
Trail Blazer 3-Pointers Plant 15,000 Trees
The Threes for Trees partnership between the Portland Trail Blazers, Daimler Trucks North America, and Friends of Trees was celebrated at the season opener
“The Trail Blazers are honored to partner with Daimler Trucks North America and Friends of Trees in support of Threes for Trees. Planting over 15,000 trees is an incredible milestone, and it has been amazing to see the transformation of the Sandy River Delta over the past four seasons. We are proud to partner with these two amazing organizations that continue to make a positive impact on our environment.”
– Christa Stout, Vice President of Social Responsibility, Portland Trail Blazers
Over the past four seasons, Daimler Trucks North America, a leader in 100% battery electric vehicles, teamed up with the Trail Blazers and Friends of Trees to improve our environment. Thanks to the Threes for Trees program together we plant three trees for every three-point field goal made. On April 13, 2018, we planted our 15,000th tree in the Sandy River Delta. Thanks to the reforestation of this area, native wildlife has returned to the Delta to live and breed for the first time in years.
Pictured here during the post-halftime shovel presentation on opening night is Scott Fogarty, Executive Director of Friends of Trees; Eileen Frack, Daimler’s General Manager of Human Resources; and Christa Stout, Vice President of Social Responsibility for the Portland Trail Blazers. A happy side-note is that this season opener belonged to the Blazers, who made 13, three-point shots which plant 39 trees!
This story is in our October 2018 edition of Treemail, our monthly e-news; check out Treemail here.