Join us in taking climate action in your community!
Has there ever been a more critical time to plant trees? It’s now common knowledge that trees play a crucial role in fighting climate change and cooling our communities—and it’s common knowledge that we are in the midst of a true climate crisis. If this summer felt like one of the hottest summers you’ve ever felt here, that’s because it was. It may be tempting to let concerns about heat fade for a few months, but now is the perfect time to plant trees.
Thousands of volunteers and partners will come together as part of Friends of Trees’ 34th planting season, to work together to fight climate change and improve their communities. We’ll be planting more than 40,000 trees and native shrubs this season that will restore sensitive natural areas, provide shade and clean our air and water.
There are so many benefits to community tree planting, including bringing neighbors together and growing community; the stewarding of future climate activists; and so much more. This season, we have partnerships with 17 municipalities in total, and many of these partnerships are growing, like in Hillsboro, where in addition to restoring natural areas we’ll be planting street trees for the first time.
We need trees, and we need the community building that comes from planting trees together, more than ever. Friends of Trees is rising to the occasion and still planting trees, and we need you to join us. You can sign up to plant with us in a neighborhood or natural area.
And you can donate. While we met our $10,000 challenge from Laughing Planet Cafe (thank you donors!) we still have $6,000 to go to meet our October goal – which means meeting our 40,000 tree + native shrub goal for the season, so thank you for pitching in!
The Eugene Branch
Two Decades of Planting along the Northwest Expressway
Every season, the Eugene Branch kicks off its planting season along the Northwest Expressway, a five-mile stretch of road parallel to the railroad. It’s not the most glamorous of planting sites, but there is plenty of available space for large trees to grow and provide their benefits to the community.
Friends of Trees volunteers will gather in Eugene on November 5th for Phase 9 of this planting project. The land is owned by Lane County and abuts the Union Pacific railyard. Friends of Trees picked this annual planting project up in 2013, but it actually started back around 2000, with what we now call Phase Zero, planted by the Eugene Tree Foundation (which became Friends of Trees – Eugene).
For these Northwest Expressway plantings, the Eugene team is creating pods of plants. After removing a eight-foot diameter of grass, they’ll plant one-to-four trees and four-to-six shrubs. In addition, this year they’ve added camas bulbs to the recipe, and will also be adding native milkweed and Douglas’ aster.
“We really want to be creating habitat for native pollinators,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. Installing understory layers in addition to trees is an approach that the Eugene team hopes to expand on for all their plantings. This year, they’re offering camas bulbs as an add-on for neighborhood tree recipients.
Consider a climate resilient oak tree for your yard this year!
As we enter planting season, many people are selecting which trees they want planted in their yards. This year, we invite you to consider an oak tree! Our tree specialists want to point you to the amazing power of oaks and showcase some of the oaks we have in the store this year, from the climate resilient Oregon white oak you probably recognize to more unique varieties like kindred spirit oaks and bamboo leaf oaks.
Oak trees are particularly good providers to their ecological community, from significantly contributing to the food web to managing the watershed to storing carbon. In those regards, it’s one of the most productive things you can put in your own yard. “As a species, they are an effective resource against climate change,” says Neighborhood Trees Senior Specialist Andrew Land, “and we want people to know that!”
Stay tuned to our social media feeds as we highlight awesome species like willow oak, a favorite among our specialists, and swamp white oak, a tree that does remarkably well in the urban environment. We’ve got oaks of different size and character, so please reach out to us to chat about which one might be right for your yard! Learn more here.
Get Involved
It’s our 34th season of planting and caring for trees – JOIN US!
Here are some upcoming volunteer events:
November 5, Neighborhood planting, River Road Park, N Salem
November 12,Neighborhood planting, Oregon City
November 19, Natural area planting, Rock Creek Headwaters, Damascus
Willamette Week’s Give!Guide begins on November 1st! Stay tuned to our social media channels for Big Give Days, special events, and more.
On November 2nd, we’ll be participating in a TRIVIA NIGHT, featuring some of the coolest community organizations featured in Give!Guide.Click here for info!
With your gift, however large or small, Friends of Trees is on its way toward hitting a $65k goal for the Give!Guide by year’s end. Your support will not only plant and care for trees—our climate superheroes—it will also help bring our communities together around the natural places we love.
Yard Signs!
Show love for your tree with a Friends of Trees yard sign!
Do you have a tree from Friends of Trees in your yard or planting strip? We want to celebrate your tree and the benefits it provides with a beautiful yard sign! We designed these signs as part of a visibility campaign: We want people to know how important trees are to their communities, and to see the impact that Friends of Trees and its supporters have made throughout western Oregon and southwest Washington. Visit here to learn more and get in touch.
FOLLOW US
Friends of Trees inspires people to improve the world around them through a simple solution:Planting Trees. Together.
