Get To Know Vancouver

Our 22-Year Partnership Continues to Grow!

Our thriving partnership with the City of Vancouver shows how committed the city is to trees and community. Since we started planting in Vancouver in 2001, we have worked with their Urban Forestry team to grow tree counts and volunteer engagement.

“It’s great to work with a city that’s investing in trees to be proactive about climate change,” says Neighborhood Trees Senior Specialist Ian Bonham.

“It’s a really great partnership, working with a nonprofit to get trees in the ground and engage homeowners in stewardship,” says Jessica George, the City of Vancouver’s Urban Forestry Outreach Coordinator. “Friends of Trees really helps grow the understanding of how trees are important.”

With our new contract, the partnership has grown from 400 trees planted each season to up to 700 trees, and from 200 trees pruned to 300.

“Pruning is an important part of it,” Jessica says. “We need to make sure that the trees are cared for so that they can provide their benefits.”

“More investment means more results,” Ian says.

Friends of Trees has five planting events in Vancouver this season. That extra capacity has allowed us to give more attention to the Fourth Plain Corridor, a diverse, historically underserved community in need of canopy cover.

“The Fourth Plain Corridor has become a priority area for trees and engagement,” Jessica says. “Awareness of the importance of trees has really grown. We appreciate the Friends of Trees model of working with volunteers to grow the knowledge base.”

We still have room for volunteers if you want to sign up!

“We have awesome support from neighborhood coordinators,” Ian says, “and so many longtime volunteers do a lot to make it happen. It’s very collaborative, and we love to welcome new volunteers into the fold, too!”

“We’re really looking forward to it,” Jessica says. Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle and City Councilmember Sarah Fox will be in attendance.

We’ve also partnered with Vancouver on workforce development. They have hosted an AmeriCorps member since 2007 to work on community tree planting. In fact, both of our dedicated Vancouver staff came to us from the AmeriCorps position. The position was created to give capacity to both Friends of Trees and Vancouver as a sort of Super Neighborhood Coordinator. The position has morphed as the partnership has grown, but still supports Friends of Trees work in Vancouver. Vancouver Urban Forestry also hosts interns from our Adult Urban Forestry and Restoration Workplace Training Program.

The City of Vancouver is in the process of updating its Urban Forestry Management Plan, and is looking for public input. If you want to see more trees in your community, fill out their community survey.

Tree Walks with the Tree Team for Give More 24!

 

Donate today to Friends of Trees and help plant more trees in southwest Washington!

To celebrate Give More 24, the Tree Team is hosting virtual tree walks, both live & recorded, on our social media channels. Garry Oak will make an appearance or two. Plus, the tree walks will feature a special guest from the City of Vancouver’s Urban Forestry team, former Tree Team Member Jesse Batty. Here’s the schedule for Give More 24 with the Tree Team, join us!

Please note that live tree walks are not open to the public due to social distancing regulations, please join us on the tree walks through our social media channels.

All events are subject to change due to weather or other considerations.

TimeTopicWhere To Join
10:00LIVE Welcome to Give More 24 with the Tree Team – with Garry Oak!
Esther Short Park
Facebook
10:15LIVE Tree Walk in Esther Short Park
with Vancouver Urban Forestry Specialist Jesse Batty 
Facebook
12:00LIVE tree walk in the Carter Park neighborhood
with Jesse & Friends of Trees Interim Executive Director Whitney Dorer
Facebook
2:00Esther Short Tree Walk available on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Facebook
4:00Carter Park Tree Walk available on Facebook, Instagram and TwitterFacebook
6:30A message from Garry Oak
Facebook

 

Facebook
Facebook

Instagram
Instagram

Twitter
Twitter

 

Meeting our $3,000 goal today means that in just one day we’re 20% closer to bridging our tree gap in southwest Washington–and bridging our tree gap means everyone in our southwest Washington service area who wants a tree, gets a tree. When you donate to Friends of Trees with Give More 24 you are helping your neighbors get trees. Thank you for helping make this happen! Would you like a tree of your own? Get started here to get a tree.

Friends of Trees has been planting trees and growing community in Southwest Washington since 2003, and we’ve engaged local volunteers to plant 6,700 trees in here. In our last planting season, 600 volunteers donated more than 2,000 hours to plant 460 trees at 11 volunteer tree planting events in Vancouver and Clark County. Of course, our planting season this year will look a bit different as we respect social distancing and group size limits — but rest assured, we’ll still be planting trees and we’ll still be engaging with volunteers, You can learn more about what our volunteer events will look like this season here.

Friends of Trees plants 50,000+ trees and native shrubs every year throughout Western Oregon and Southwest Washington. Thanks to generous support from friends like you we’ve planted more than 850,000 trees and native shrubs in hundreds of neighborhoods and natural areas since 1989.

You can feel good about donating to Friends of Trees because all donations plant trees and bring people together.

Thank you for supporting trees + community!

Get to know our partner: the City of Vancouver

“Friends of Trees does more than simply plant a tree at a Vancouver resident’s house. They plant the right tree, the right way, in the right location.” -Charles Ray, City of Vancouver Urban Forester

For 16 years Friends of Trees has been planting the right trees, the right way, for Vancouver residents in partnership with the City of Vancouver. Currently more than 500 trees are planted every year here, thanks to the help of hundreds of community volunteers.

Vancouver’s Urban Forester, Charles Ray, reflects on this long-lasting, impactful partnership, and the important role trees play in the community,

Vancouver has a long history with trees and considers trees community assets that provide multiple benefits, including clean water. The simple truth is trees in the community have practical, quantifiable values and are not merely decorations. They provide essential benefits that we cannot live without.

“We are fortunate to have an organization like Friends of Trees that shares the same mission and helps us accomplish more. Most municipal programs across the country dream of having an opportunity such as this. Friends of Trees does more than simply plant a tree at a Vancouver resident’s house. They plant the right tree, the right way, in the right location.

“Friends of Trees engages that person several times through the process, enabling staff and volunteers to share the benefits of trees and educate them about the City’s processes and requirements around trees. It also offers them an opportunity to engage hands-on with the community asset, the tree that will be planted in front of their house. This often leads to stronger community connections and civic involvement, and knowledge of the benefits, how to care for and needs of the urban forest.

“Planting the right tree in the right place and giving it the right care and pruning make all the difference to ensuring a healthy urban forest today and for generations to come. It only takes a minute to improperly prune or remove a tree but a lifetime to grow one.

“We cannot do it alone. I am excited by Friends of Trees’ commitment to Vancouver and the community’s efforts to meet this need. If I could ask for one thing it would be participation from the business community to sponsor plantings so that we can increase our annual planting goals with Friends of Trees.”

Charles, we couldn’t say it better ourselves; Vancouver businesses, join us!

Pictured above: Far left, Jessica George, City of Vancouver; standing, third from left, UF Program intern Bruce

This is from the April 2019 edition of our e-news, Treemail; check out that issue of Treemail, and others, here.

Give More 24! Planting trees + growing community in Vancouver and Clark County, WA

It’s time for GiveMore 24!

Do you know about Give More 24? It’s a one-day, online giving marathon just for Southwest Washington, focusing on raising money for organizations that serve Vancouver and Clark County–organizations like Friends of Trees!

Give More 24 takes place on Thursday, September 20–and we can use your help to spread the word to raise some money for more trees + community in Southwest Washington.

Here’s how you can help:

THANK YOU!

PS: Any chance you’ll be in downtown Vancouver around 7:00 a.m. on September 20? There’s a Give More 24 rally in Esther Short Park at the foot of the clocktower. Yep, it’s early. Yep, there’ll be coffee & donuts. Yep, there’s a dance-a-thon at 7:24 a.m. Yep, we’ll be there (weather permitting) and we’ll have your favorite dancing-high-fiving tree, Garry Oak! Plus, our good friends at the Portland Timbers are sending Timber Joey! What a time, Join Us!

More trees on the horizon for Vancouver!

Friends of Trees will be on Vancouver’s Westside on February 21st. You can plant with us and learn more about how we work with local communities to plant trees together, by visiting our volunteer page.

The Port of Vancouver USA is partnering with Friends of Trees Friends to grow the Vancouver urban tree canopy. We’ll be working with The Port to help plant trees across the city as part of their efforts to mitigate property development impacts. Thanks to this new agreement, FoT is aiming to increase the number of street trees it plants along the city’s right of ways – a.k.a. planting strips.

A mitigation tree is a wonky term used for a tree that is planted to replace one that’s been cut down elsewhere. Most cities require mitigation trees to be planted as a condition of development. Preferably, a tree is on the same property a tree was removed from but if this isn’t possible, there are other options: The City of Vancouver allows trees to be planted at other locations within city limits as a condition of removing trees. Paying into Vancouver’s Tree Fund is another option, though often more costly.

3.15.14 :: NE Vancouver Neighborhood Planting

Many of these street trees that we’ll be planting are funded by The Port and will be of no cost to homeowners. The care and responsibility of these new trees will remain under stewardship of the adjacent property owner. FoT provides watering reminders and health checkups to help these trees thrive.  FoT also offers ooze tubes to help make watering easy and convenient!

Because we entered this agreement nearly halfway through this year’s planting season, we’re offering FREE STREET TREES to all customers for our remaining neighborhood plantings now through March 2015. Starting next planting season, Friends of Trees will be offering free street trees to select neighborhoods throughout the city—a list that will change on an annual basis. Please help spread the news and stay posted for the release of next year’s free tree neighborhoods in early summer. From this moment forth, we’ll need more help than ever identifying planting locations and recruiting tree planters in Vancouver!

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