OCTOBER 2025: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MESSAGE | YARD TREES | VOLUNTEER!
TREES ARE MY FEEL-GOOD
A message from Friends of Trees Executive Director, Yashar Vasef
Planting season is here! This palpable excitement brings me back to when I first moved to Portland 10 years ago.At the time, I lived in a low-canopy neighborhood—which I noted because some of our surrounding neighborhoods had beautiful canopy and shade when I biked around town.
Trees played such an important role in my youth: Growing up in Iran during the devastating Iran-Iraq War, my father, Mohammad, brought us to the Hyrcanian Forests during cease-fires. We escaped the war-torn city for the feel-good of trees and the tranquility of nature away from the sound of missiles dropping on Tehran.
Yashar, age 4, with his father Mohammad in the northern forests of Iran.
Ever since then, trees have been my feel-good, so I definitely noticed the lack of trees in my new Portland neighborhood.
And then one day, Friends of Trees showed up! I was inside and noticed people outside in the street, planting trees. I went outside, “What is this?” I asked someone in an orange vest who seemed to be leading it all. “We’re Friends of Trees!” For months, walking by the newly planted trees made me grin from cheek to cheek.
At my first planting event with Friends of Trees as executive director I joined a restoration event at Columbia Children’s Arboretum in North Portland, a site where we’ve planted more than 7,000 native trees and shrubs in the 11 years we helped restore the site, now a beautiful meadow surrounded by native trees and shrubs. I had to pause when a bald eagle coasted over us, looking for food or maybe a tree snag with a view. Talk about feeling good.
We have dozens of planting events this season, in dozens of communities from Eugene to Vancouver, and we’d love for you to find your own feel-good moments with us. You’ll feel good knowing that you’re doing good. You’ll feel good doing something that matters.
Feel good. Do Good. Plant Trees — Join us for our 37th season!
We have awesome planting events for you this season! Whether it’s in a neighborhood or natural area, we would love your help building community with trees and native plants. As a volunteer named Krista puts it, “the sense of community and happiness I get from a Saturday planting event lasts the whole week!”
Here are some upcoming volunteer events:
November 1, Natural area planting, Bybee Lakes, N Portland
November 8, Natural area planting, Southern Lites Park, Happy Valley
November 15, Natural area planting, Butternut Tributary, Aloha
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.
WE LOVE YARD TREES
Large, evergreen, and native faves for our staff
Do you have a yard that could use a tree? Maybe you want more summertime shade or to provide a home for local wildlife. There’s nothing quite like waking up to the sound of birds.
As residents, our greatest opportunity to add trees to our community is at our own homes. Friends of Trees plants a lot of trees along the street in right-of-way planting strips. More and more, we’re looking for people who are excited to plant trees in their yards. It’s a lot of untapped area for trees to grow, providing all their community benefits like clean air and water, wildlife habitat, cooler summer temperatures, and more.
We are especially excited to promote large, evergreen, and native trees, because each of those qualities can really maximize the benefits a tree provides. Big trees provide more shade, more habitat, more carbon sequestration, stormwater filtration, and air pollution reduction. Because they keep their leaves (or needles) year round, evergreen trees are always helping clean our air.
And of course we love native trees! Native trees are excellent choices for providing bird and wildlife habitat, and they’re suited to our specific climate and conditions, making them relatively resilient and easy to care for. While a diverse, healthy urban canopy also includes non-native species, especially those adapted to the stresses of climate change and urban settings, native species have a special sense of belonging and cultural relevance in this place.
Our staff has compiled a list of some of their favorite large, evergreen, and native trees! Especially for our Portland plantings, where our partnership is prioritizing these species, we encourage you to consider choosing some of these awesome trees.
The Eugene Branch just wrapped up its pruning season before kicking off the planting season. They keep these pruning events small and intimate so that each volunteer gets more hands-on experience. Pruning can feel like an art as much as a science, and it’s something that takes a lot of practice before you feel comfortable.
Each pruning event has just up to 15 volunteers, and they split into four or five groups, with one Friends of Trees staff member on each team. They prune to provide clearance over the sidewalk and the road, and they prune for good structure. In many but not all species, this includes encouraging a strong central leader.
“Young tree pruning is the most cost effective thing you can do for an urban forest,” Erik says. Pruning helps create a lasting form that won’t suffer as much damage from storms and trucks.
When you walk up to a tree that needs to be pruned, it can be tough to know where to start. Every tree is different. You have a number of goals you want to achieve, but you can only prune so much. Each pruner might make different little decisions toward the same overall goal of forming the tree.
“It’s so personal, the approach each person takes,” Erik says. “We all do it totally differently and no one way is right.” Read more here.
Check out our event calendarto sign up for our first planting event of the season at Northwest Expressway, or to train to be a Crew Leader!
GIVE!GUIDE IS ALMOST HERE!
Willamette Week’s Give!Guide begins on November 1st! Stay tuned to our social media channels for Big Give Days, special events, and more. The first Big Give Day—on November 1st—you can win a coffee subscription!
With your gift, however large or small, Friends of Trees is on its way toward hitting a $60K goal for the Give!Guide by year’s end. Your support will bring people together to make our neighborhoods greener, full of trees and native plants that fight climate change, cool our homes, clean our air and water, and so much more.
We’d love it if you also supported our partners: Depave, The Blueprint Foundation, Columbia Slough Watershed Council, and Wisdom of the Elders. And thanks to our business sponsors Ranch Pizza and Level Beer for giving a slice (square) of pizza and a pint of beer to our first 300 donors of $15+!
