Tag: bike planting
Erik’s 25th Planting Season!
A note from Eugene Director Erik Burke as he enters his 25th planting season
The planting season in Eugene and Springfield is almost here, and if you ask me what I’m looking forward to the most, it’s simple: I’m just really looking forward to planting with volunteers. We’ve built up a great core of volunteers, and I know that I’ll get to meet cool new people, too.
I started with Eugene Tree Foundation in 2001—we were a little more ragtag then— and we officially became the Friends of Trees Eugene Branch in 2011. That means this will be my 25th season. Regardless of whether or not I’m feeling the years, I still get really happy on planting days, and I even find myself floating for a few hours afterwards.
I was talking with my teammate Taylor recently about how we used to do our bike plantings without any e-bikes. You’d inevitably take the wrong route and find yourself face to face with a huge hill. Maybe not that huge, but when you’re towing a trailer full of trees and shovels, any hill is huge. Taylor pointed out that in situations like that, our volunteers always rally around the spirit of “we can do it!”
At every planting event, something different always happens. A new challenge emerges. Lately, I’ve been trying more and more to step back and let the people on the crew work together to solve a problem. And every single time, people come together to figure it out.
There aren’t a lot of opportunities to meet such a wide variety of people. We have volunteers from age two to 80-plus. I like being surprised by people. Like the young woman at the pizza shop who saw my oak tree shirt and called herself a “Quercus garryana gal.” How can you not love that?
I’m really looking forward to the joy, gratitude, and appreciation I find at planting events. Tree planting brings together people who care, and we’re so lucky to live in a community that cares so deeply about nature.
If you’re excited as I am, or if you’re looking to be a part of something special, I hope you’ll join us at an event in Eugene or Springfield this season. Our calendar is live!
Planting by Bike in Eugene
Pedal Powered Planting
Why take a car when you can take a bicycle? The Eugene Branch has always taken that mindset and incorporates bicycle crews whenever they get the chance. On February 22, they had three biking crews—and a walking crew!—bring the spirit of sustainability to the South Eugene Planting event.
“It’s always so cool to see bikes with trailers full of trees,” says Eugene-Springfield Program Manager Taylor Glass.
Bike crews are able to transport trees and tools from the staging site to planting locations by using bicycle trailers. Last year, our Eugene-Springfield team received an Electric Mobility Grant from the Eugene Water & Electric Board. We got two new electric bicycles to use for pedal powered planting and this is our first year incorporating those into the plantings.
“South Eugene is especially hilly,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “In the past, we’ve done some really challenging climbs, but with the e-bikes it’s so easy!”
To give even more community members a chance to participate as a volunteer on two wheels, the Eugene Branch partners with the local bikeshare, PeaceHealth Rides, to have their bikes available at events and free to volunteers. On Erik’s bike team on Saturday, he had 5 volunteers, and Erik and four of the volunteers rode PeaceHealth rides bikes.
“I just love it,” Erik says. “It’s so fun to see the look of amazement on people’s faces in cars driving by us when a whole crew rides past hauling big trees. And when treecipients see us pull up, they’re so surprised to see we biked their tree over.”
With success, fun, and enthusiasm from volunteers, Friends of Trees hopes to have more and more bike crews at plantings in every community we work in.
Pedal Power in Eugene
A new E-Bike grant gives our Eugene team even more Pedal Power!
Our Eugene-Springfield team just received an Electric Mobility Grant from the Eugene Water & Electric Board. The team will receive two new electric bicycles to use for pedal powered planting. Our Eugene plantings already feature robust bicycle use and these new e-bikes will expand our plant-by-bike program even more.
“It’ll be great to be able to use these new e-bikes to haul trees at planting events,” says Eugene-Springfield Program Manager Taylor Glass. The team has borrowed e-bikes from partners in the past so they know exactly how useful they can be.
“Eugene has a fair amount of hills,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “It can be a fun challenge on a regular bike, but I’ve had to get off to push a bike trailer up a big hill.”
“The e-bikes can go further and up hills and that just opens up more possibilities for where we can plant by bike,” Taylor says. “And it will give volunteers an opportunity to try them out.”
Beyond planting events Friends of Trees staff will be able to use the e-bikes for things like site inspections, outreach events, and pruning. Reducing how often we drive as part of the sustainability goals for Friends of Trees.
“You really get to know the city better when you’re biking through it rather than driving,” Erik says.
Want to get in on the action this season? Check out our planting event calendar. Do you want to step up and lead a planting crew? Crew leader training is November 29th.
Season Highlights in Eugene-Springfield
Reflecting on another successful season
The Eugene-Springfield team had their final event on May 6th and with hardly a break has already started their summer watering routine. Still, they’ve taken time to reflect on the successes of the 2022- 2023 planting event season. It was a season characterized by more bicycles, new relationships, and emerging leaders.
“We had the most consistent group of new crew leaders this season,” says Eugene-Springfield Program Manager Taylor Glass. “This new cohort quickly rose to lead alongside our veteran CLs. It’s great to have that consistency at planting events.”
The team also worked to expand the use of bicycle crews at planting events. Partnering with PeaceHealth Rides, we had three events with multiple bicycle crews.
“This is something we want to keep doing more of,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “Not only is it a sustainability goal, volunteers just really love it.”
Another area with promising growth this year has been planting at school campuses. We had four plantings at schools, installing trees along the public right of way. The Eugene team has been developing relationships with the school grounds managers to make sure the newly planted trees are well cared for and to find more opportunities to grow tree canopy at school sites.
With the 2023 Greenpower Grant from Eugene Water & Electric Board, the Eugene team looks forward to further expanding its planting program in areas that need trees most. The $50,000 award will fund the expansion of their Neighborhood Tree program to all areas of Eugene with low tree equity scores
Another highlight of the year was especially fun—attending Portland planting events and hosting Portland staff at Eugene events.
“It’s great to spend time together,” Taylor says, “and to exchange ideas on how to do things. Our events are a little different from Portland events.”
One of the things the Eugene team does differently: they keep their neighborhood planting events relatively small. The volunteers largely prefer the more intimate events. They get to connect with each other and still plant plenty of trees.
Thanks to all of this year’s volunteers in Eugene and Springfield!
Eugene Bicycle Plantings
Biking Our Way Into the New Year
Why take a car when you can take a bicycle? The Eugene Branch has always taken that mindset and incorporates bicycle crews into every neighborhood planting event.
“We have some really dedicated bike volunteers,” says Eugene-Springfield Program Manager Taylor Glass. “That’s how we can always have a bike planting crew.”
Bike crews are able to transport trees and tools from the staging site to planting locations by using bicycle trailers. In addition to our own trailers, Hummingbird Wholesale often joins us for a planting with their large electric-assisted bike trailers so that we can transport even bigger loads.
Using bikes instead of cars is a reflection of our desire to take care of our environment, and it makes perfect sense to reduce emissions at a bike planting. Beyond that, it’s just plain fun.
“I just love it,” says Eugene Director Erik Burke. “It’s so fun to see the look of amazement on people’s faces when a whole crew rides past hauling big trees. And when treecipients see us pull up, they’re so surprised to see we biked their tree over.”
To give even more community members a chance to participate as a volunteer on two wheels, The Eugene Branch partners with a local bikeshare, PeaceHealth Rides, to have their bikes available at events and free to volunteers. In the past, we’ve had about one event per year with PeaceHealth Rides, but this year we’ll have three! The first will be on January 7th.
With success, fun, and enthusiasm from volunteers, Friends of Trees hopes to have more and more bike crews at plantings in every community we work in.