MARCH 2025: PLANTING FOR BEES | GREEN PATHWAYS | ALMOST 1M!
TREES & BEES? YES PLEASE!
We partnered with Vancouver Bee Project to add pollinator plants alongside new neighborhood trees.
An urban tree doesn’t exist in a vacuum. As soon as it’s planted, it interacts with the soil and air, with people and wildlife. Our neighborhoods are their own ecosystems. At a recent planting in Vancouver, Friends of Trees leaned into that idea, incorporating native plants alongside new trees to attract pollinators.
We’re in our second year of partnering with a local organization, Vancouver Bee Project, to bring pollinator plants to our communities. Last season, we shared a vision to pilot a pollinator “guild” component within a planting event. This month, we had another co-planting that added 150 pollinator plants like yarrow, wild strawberry, lupine and aster alongside new neighborhood trees in the Central-North/Fourth Plain neighborhoods.
“It’s great that the trees get buddy plants. Trees are part of a larger ecosystem, even in an urban environment, and so are pollinators.”
-Adela, Friends of Trees Neighborhood Trees Specialist for Vancouver
Urban trees are subjected to all kinds of pressure from their environment. Planting companion plants around the base of an urban tree, or creating a plant “guild,” creates the opportunity for synergetic plant relationships: Plants provide the tree with extra nutrients and trunk protection, and the tree provides plants needed shade and support. These guilds also provide high quality forage and habitat for native pollinators, who could really use our support.
“Trees and pollinator-friendly plants complement each other beautifully, enhancing biodiversity and strengthening our community’s environmental health.”
-Kyle, Vancouver Bee Project
Vancouver Bee Project and Friends of Trees selected the Central-North/Fourth Plain neighborhoods to pilot this initiative. We wanted to make the social, ecological, and aesthetic benefits of these plants available to a part of the Vancouver community that experiences high health disparities and includes historically underserved communities.
“The event was fantastic,” Kyle says. “There was a palpable excitement among volunteers as we introduced pollinator plants alongside the trees. People loved learning about how these plants directly support local bees, butterflies, and birds.”
Our native pollinators are increasingly threatened by human caused changes in the environment, such as climate change and habitat loss from development, so helping them out in these ways, by providing refuge and forage, can make a huge difference.
“There’s a unique joy when I find a pollinator guild buzzing with bees,” Adela says.Read more here!
OUR MILLIONTH TREE IS ALMOST HERE!
This season Friends of Trees celebrates planting a million trees *and native shrubs with more than 75,000 community volunteers since 1989.
This April, we’re planting our Millionth Tree! We’re celebrating the 999,999 trees and native shrubs that came before it and all the people that made it happen. And it’s happening right in time for Earth Month!
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 AUF Program takes place in partnership with the Connecting Canopies, and is designed to engage underrepresented communities and address barriers to participation in the field of urban forestry. The program just finished its ten-week curriculum, with each module featuring a different guest presenter and topic. 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,” Rudy says. “The totality of who you are and why you’re here in this moment. 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.”
This honesty and authenticity gives AUF participants a more realistic sense of the pathways into the green workforce. Participants, too, had the opportunity to share their stories at the end of the program.
Now, the participants move into the internship phase of Connecting Canopies, 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.
Our Eugene Team partnered with University of Oregon for a natural area planting project
This March, there was a truly exciting University of Oregon event—a natural area planting! No one loses when more than 50 students show up to plant in the riparian zone of the Willamette River.
The University owns a lot of land along the Willamette River, which presents a great opportunity to restore and expand the riparian forest along it. Riparian zones are the areas alongside a waterway where land and water interact. Riparian plants are critical to the health of a waterway as they prevent erosion, help break down pollutants from the water, and provide habitat for aquatic wildlife.
“There’s not a lot of riparian forest left along the Willamette,” Erik says. “It’s really valuable to be able to make improvements to what we do have.”
Students from environmental science, landscape architecture and other programs planted natives like red-flowering currant, twinberry and tall Oregon grape. They even transitioned from riparian forest to savannah, planting trees like ponderosa pine and Oregon white oak alongside wildflowers.
This stretch of riparian forest grew from 30 feet wide to 50 feet wide in a single planting event. Sounds like a slam dunk to us. Read more here!
GET INVOLVED
Help us reach our 1 millionth tree this planting season!
If you can believe it, we are nearing the end of the season, so sign up now to get your planting and tree care in! Whether it’s in a neighborhood or natural area, we would love your help taking climate action and building community with trees and native plants.
We’re still looking for volunteers for these events:
April 12, Tualatin River Farm stewardship, Hillsboro
April 12, Columbia Slough Natural Area stewardship, NE Portland
April 19, Village Green Park stewardship, Happy Valley
April 26, Tranquil Park stewardship, Wilsonville
April 26, Wilkes Creek Headwaters stewardship, NE Portland
Crew Leaders and Assistants—watch your inbox for Crew Leader News on the first of the month! Trained Crew Leaders sign-up for events here.
Right Tree, Right Place
PGE, our Millionth Tree Presenting Partner, shares a commitment to thoughtful tree selection
How do we make sure an urban tree thrives? We plant the right tree in the right place. At Friends of Trees, that means selecting a tree species that suits the conditions of the location, taking into consideration the available sunlight, soil, water, and space. It also means picking a tree that the recipient will really love—for its shade, climate resilience, wildlife benefit, or aesthetic enjoyment.
Our Millionth Tree Presenting Partner, Portland General Electric, is also committed to thoughtful tree selection and planting education. PGE’s “right tree, right place” initiative provides guidance on where trees can grow and thrive for decades without interfering with power lines or other utility equipment.
“Selecting the right tree species in the right location is critical to the long-term growth and success of the tree,” said PGE Senior Manager Vegetation Management, Alex Konopka. “We want to empower customers to make the right decisions now before they plant to ensure their trees can grow to full potential.”
We’re excited that Portland General Electric is the Presenting Partner for our Millionth Tree Celebration. They’re helping us celebrate by supporting volunteer events throughout the planting season and other fun community events like tree walks and volunteer appreciation parties. All of this will culminate with the Millionth Tree Celebration & Planting in April.
Our first bilingual planting ~ El Primer Evento Bilingüe de Plantar árboles de Friends of Trees | Get to know our partner: Sandy River Watershed Council
