We’re thrilled to see scholar, friend, change-maker and overall inspiration Dr. Vivek Shandas featured on Dan Haggerty KGW / KGW-TV talking about urban heat island effect and possible interventions, including … (drumroll please) … trees! We’re also quite excited and honored to have been featured in KGW’s #HeyHelp campaign this week, highlighting all that trees and community tree planting does to combat climate change (while growing community). Check out our own Whitney Dorer’s tree walk with Dr Shandas, always a great conversation about the amazing-ness of trees!

It’s official: We need trees more than ever.

Trees and climate change are in the news a lot lately, and we appreciate the attention being given to trees and community health at this moment and hope to continue to be a part of the conversation, sparking curiosity, joy, and hope among anyone who plants, cares for, and learns about trees in our city. At a time of catastrophic climate events, locally and around the world, we know that planting trees is a key part of a comprehensive climate strategy. Friends of Trees would argue that planting and caring for trees with community volunteers is also key to fighting climate change. We know that volunteering to plant and care for trees increases community members’ overall engagement with, concern about, and continued action regarding the environment, climate change, and overall civic life –  there is a ripple effect from tree planting that also fights climate change, beyond the actual trees.

We’ve been successfully engaged in this work with a wide variety of community partners for 32 years, and we look forward to more opportunities to continue to plant trees, together.