Tag: slideshow
Attend a slide show and find your perfect tree!
By Erica Timm
So, you’ve signed up for planting day, had your planting strip inspected, and are now ready to make your tree selection, but which one will be best for you?
How can you best maximize beauty and habitat value? You like the idea of a flowering tree, but with so many available, what other characteristics should you consider? Would a tree with fiery red fall color look best with your house, or would a warm, golden yellow go better?
Whether you need help in choosing the right tree for your yard or planting strip, or you just want to learn more about the types of trees that make up Portland’s incredible urban forest, you’ll be happy to know that Friends of Trees has organized three informative slideshow/Q&A sessions for just these reasons!
Please join local tree expert Jim Gersbach and Friends of Trees staff for an evening of tree talk and light refreshments on one of the following days:
SOUTHEAST: Thursday, November 8, 7-9 p.m. – Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church
NORTH: Thursday, November 29, 7-9 p.m. – New Columbia Education Center, 4625 N Trenton Street
NORTHEAST: Thursday, December 6, 7-9 p.m. – Kennedy School Community Room, 5736 NE 33rd Avenue
Be sure to note which planting strip size(s) you have been approved for as this is an important part of helping you find the best tree for your location. This information is available when you log into your account (or on the planting permit you may have received from Urban Forestry, if a permit was initiated with them).
If you are not signed up to buy a tree yet, visit FriendsofTrees.org today and we’ll get you started!
Contact Friends of Trees at 503-595-0212 if you have any questions about these tree talk events, or if you’d like some help selecting and ordering a tree.
–Timm is Neighborhood Trees Senior Specialist for Friends of Trees.
A great start to February
What a weekend!
Friends of Trees had four successful plantings on February 4, thanks to all of our volunteers, planting partners, and sponsors. Below are photos from our Green Space Initiative planting in Tigard taken by Phil Pasteris, photos from our Eugene planting taken by Becky Lubas Nickell, and photos from our Piedmont-Woodlawn neighborhood planting in Portland taken by Stephanie Lynch and Sarah Outlaw.
About 175 volunteers planted 240 street and yard trees in the Piedmont and Woodlawn neighborhoods, 100 volunteers planted 1,250 trees at Pinebrook Creek, 50 volunteers planted 100 trees at Richardson Bridge in Eugene, and 50 volunteers planted 2,800 trees at Barrows Meadow in Beaverton. Our planting partners were Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, Clean Water Services, and the cities of Eugene, Tigard, and Beaverton. Portland General Electric (PGE) sponsored our Pinebrook Creek planting.
Parading for Plant It Portland!
Friends of Trees neighborhood coordinators and staff had a great time at the St. Johns Parade this month, where they featured the Plant It Portland! campaign. Friends of Trees even received an honorable mention for participating in the parade.
“It was the first parade of the season and it rocked!” said Friends of Trees Neighborhood Trees Manager Whitney Dorer.
There’s more to come. On June 4 and 11, Portland General Electric will feature Friends of Trees’ Plant It Portland! campaign for the utility company’s Rose Festival Starlight and Grand Floral parade floats. The Rose Festival marks the start of PGE’s lead sponsorship of the Plant It Portland! campaign, whose goal is to plant 16,000 street trees in East Portland neighborhoods.
The 20-foot-long float, called “Right Tree, Right Place, Right On,” will feature planting events in both the Neighborhood Trees and Green Space Initiative programs.
Riding on the Rose Festival floats will be Friends of Trees mascot Garry Oak, longtime Friends of Trees staff member Mary Harrell, and volunteers Conan Harmon-Walker, Wayne Lei, Leah Haykin, and Dianna Shervey. Volunteers, including board members and bicycling crews, will walk and ride bikes alongside the floats.
Conan Harmon-Walker received the 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award. He has planted about 18,000 trees and shrubs to date, and his goal is to plant 25,000. Wayne Lei received the 2009 Individual Leadership Award from Friends of Trees for his longtime support for Friends of Trees beginning in 1996, when he encouraged PGE to be lead sponsor of our five-year Seed the Future campaign.
Arborist Dianna Shervey is a member of Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission and a crew leader. And Grant High School student Leah Haykin received honorable mention as 2011 Neighborhood Trees Rookie of the Year.
Mary Harrell has been Friends of Trees’ office manager since 1995, and has seen Friends of Trees grow from a staff of four to a staff of 20.
“We plant trees in communities,” she explains, “And we change the look of those communities, and the health of those communities. The trees we plant may be small, but they grow up and make a big difference.”
–TR
March 19 planting photos & gratitude
Many thanks to the 167 volunteers who helped Friends of Trees plant nearly 500 trees at our Neighborhood Trees plantings and our Green Space Initiative planting along the I-205 Multi-Use Path in Lents on March 19. Special thanks to photographers Staci Heathman and Melissa Timko, whose images are a part of the slide show below, and to the Tzu Chi Academy, whose many volunteers made a big difference at our Lents planting.
On Friday Portland Trail Blazer Marcus Camby joined Friends of Trees and the Boys & Girls Club to plant along the I-205 Multi-Use Path in Lents. The plantings was part of the Blazers’ “Make It Better” program. We appreciate the Blazers’ generous support and our partnership in the team’s Green Game this spring.
On Saturday, Multnomah County Commissioner Judy Shiprack, Metro’s Mary Rose Navarro, East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District Vice-Chair Rick Till, ODOT’s Shelli Romero, and Friends of Trees board member Fred Nilsen joined community volunteers to plant at the same location in Lents. Students from Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center led some of the volunteers.
In addition, Phoebe, who was featured in one of our December Why I Plant Trees ads in The Oregonian, joined her mother to plant along the Multi-Use Path on Saturday. They named a tree they planted at the top of the hill “Pete,” and they plan to check on Pete’s growth whenever they pass by. Phoebe also donated $28.87 to Friends of Trees in coins that she’d set aside from several months of allowance. It was her second donation of collected coins! Find out more about Phoebe and how you can support Friends of Trees, too.
“We had a great time planting trees along I- 205 Saturday,” said Mei-Shan Wang of the Tzu Chi Foundation, Portland Service Center. “Portland Tzu Chi Academy students, parents, and volunteers enjoyed experiences of serving community at the same time protected our environment. Go Green!”
You can see more photos of the Tzu Chi Academy students and parents on the Tzu Chi Academy web site.
Friends of Trees volunteers also planted 190 street and yard trees in the Beaumont-Wilshire, Cully, and Roseway neighborhoods. The planting was sponsored by the Port of Portland in partnership with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (BES).
In the the Madison South and Rose City Park neighborhoods—another Plant It Portland! event supported by BES—volunteers planted 131 street and yard trees.
“My husband and I really enjoyed the Madison South planting event, and we love our new tree!” said Melissa Timko, who sent us photos.
We hope you’ll join us this Saturday for our final Neighborhood Trees plantings of the 2010-11 season in Portland’s Concordia and Vernon neighborhoods and Vancouver’s Burton Ridge, Fircrest, Marrion, Oakbrook, and Ogden neighborhoods. We’ll also plant 25 big trees at Eisenhower School Park in Hazel Dell, Vancouver, and our Green Space Initiative program will lead a planting at Durham City Park.
The Concordia and Vernon planting is sponsored by NW Natural, in partnership with BES. The Vancouver plantings are in partnership with Vancouver Urban Forestry. And the Durham City Park planting is in partnership with Metro, Tualatin Watershed’s Clean Water Services, and the City of Durham.
–TR
Good food, good people, good training, good trees–all in Vancouver
By Jesse Batty
Saturday morning, November 6, was a great day of knowledge, trees, good food, and good people at Friends of Trees’ Neighborhood Trees Crew Leader Training in Vancouver.
In the morning, 27 volunteers became official Friends of Trees crew leaders. They will be an integral part of our effort to plant 5,000 trees this year.
In the afternoon, all of the new crew leaders joined up with homeowners and volunteers to plant 69 street and yard trees in the Fisher’s Creek and Cascade Highlands neighborhoods. Many thanks to volunteer neighborhood coordinators Bill Woodward and Erika Johnson for helping to make their neighborhoods a greener place!
If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer crew leader or a volunteer neighborhood coordinator with Friends of Trees this year, contact Andy Meeks at [email protected].
Counting all of our plantings to date in the 2010-11 planting season, we have three weekends, six plantings, one training, 298 volunteers, and 2,503 new trees and native plants. Join us for an upcoming planting to see how much fun it is to plant with us.
If you’d like to plant a tree at your home, you can find your tree here.
–Batty is Neighborhood Trees Specialist for Friends of Trees