Tree Care

Summer Tree Care in the Pacific Northwest

Summer sun is here! If you got a tree from us this past season, you can expect a Summer Tree Inspector to come by to see how your newly planted tree is faring if they haven’t already. Longer, hotter summers mean that even species native to this region are struggling to stay hydrated.

“Unlike in other areas of the country, like the East and the Southeast… we don’t get any rain during most of a tree’s growing season. And so as far as tree care at this time of year, I’m mostly thinking about watering.”
–Litzy Venturi, Community Tree Care Coordinator

Each summer, we try to visit every single tree that was planted during the prior planting season. Our volunteer inspectors are trained to check on these young trees to make sure they’re getting the care they need to make it through their first summer.

Here are some pointers from our Summer Tree Inspector Program for protecting your trees in the heat. You can always visit our Young Tree Care Guide if you have any questions.

  • Water and mulch
    Trees depend on water to survive the heat. A protected environment that prevents evaporation is key, giving water an opportunity to go deep and be taken up by the roots. Here’s are some steps:
  • Create a mulch donut over the roots: Apply a three-inch layer of mulch over the root zone to prevent evaporation and help water reach a little deeper. Be sure to leave a three-inch gap of bare soil directly around the trunk; keeping the bark constantly wet creates an entry point for disease.
    • Mulch helps keep weeds and grass down, which limits the need for using lawn mowers and string trimmers near the tree’s trunk. Recommend hand pulling weeds/grass. Significant bark damage can impact its ability take up water, and can ultimately shorten a tree’s life.
  • Water when it is cool: Early morning or late evening is best. Watering during the heat of the day causes the water to evaporate before it can reach the tree’s roots.
  • Water deeply and cyclically, 15-20 gallons once per week:
    1) Watering bags: Zip a green Gator slow-release bag around the trunk (or place it next to it if it doesn’t fit) and fill it once or twice a week.
    2) DIY a 5-gallon bucket: Drill a 1/8-inch hole near the bottom of a plastic bucket, set it by the roots, and fill.
    3) A trickling hose: Set your garden hose to a gentle trickle right over the root zone for about 30 minutes.

As you water, you’ll start to get a dialogue going with your tree about how it handles the heat and you’ll notice how the soil is reacting too. Every tree is different. Here are some ways to observe and improve as you go:

  • Get a feel for soil moisture: You can push a pencil about two inches deep to see if the water is making its way into the ground near your tree’s roots. If it comes out clean, this is a sure sign your soil is too dry.
  • Trees can get overwatered, especially if a tree is being watered in addition to receiving water from daily lawn irrigation. While grass takes up a lot of the water, the soil around the tree’s roots, especially when it’s young, can end up with more water than the tree can take up with its limited roots. This can kill the tree
  • Widen the watering area: You can move your watering zone a few inches farther out from the trunk each summer. This encourages roots to grow away from the trunk, which assists with anchoring and better water absorption and nutrient uptake.
  • If you can’t water: If you go out of town or otherwise leave without watering for a while, your tree might look completely parched when you get back. Compensating with too much watering without letting soil breathe can lead to rot. It is better to give your tree one deep soaking to reset the soil and then return to a regular weekly watering.
  • Build up the soil: You can put down a layer of mulch every year to replenish the donut. As it breaks down over time it feeds the tree and creates well aerated soil. Also, a wide mulch ring can help lawnmowers and weed-whackers to keep a safe distance.

“Over the course of decades, if everybody mulched their yards, we could change the city’s soil structure to be much more amenable to microorganisms and plant roots.”
–Litzy Venturi, Community Tree Care Coordinator

Look Out for heatwaves
Keep an eye on the forecast and act before the heat hits. While temperatures above 85°F are stressful for trees, you should start taking precautions as soon as the forecast nears 80°F. Also, trees in direct sun or near concrete and asphalt are especially vulnerable, as those spots get much hotter than the official forecast.

  • Pre-water: Soak the ground two days before a heatwave arrives. This gives moisture time to sink deep into the soil.
  • Remove competition: Surrounding lawn grass and plants will compete for every drop of water. Keep the tree’s root zone weeded, and you can put friendly companion plants just outside the tree’s canopy.
  • Increase water during heatwaves: Water 10 gallons per inch of trunk diameter, three times weekly during heatwaves.
  • Pay special attention to vulnerable trees: Trees with thick, waxy leaves (like white oaks or tupelos) naturally handle heat better. Trees with delicate leaves (like vine maples) will scorch much easier. Make sure these trees don’t get missed, and get extra watering.

More resources

When looking for accurate tree care information, you can check out Western-specific resources that account for dry summer climates like ours:

Garry Diaries

Garry is shaking with anticipation for Earth Month

Dear Diary,

Have you smelled the petrichor lately? I can’t get enough of that delicious smell after a spring rain. My tree friends are budding, my flower friends are popping, the days are getting longer, and I am trembling with anticipation—so much that you might think I’m a Quaking Aspen instead of an Oregon White Oak—because Earth Month is almost here!

Yes, we need a whole month! One Arbor Day and one Earth Day is just not enough. Think how big the Earth is and everything there is to celebrate: the lands and waters, plants and wildlife. All the ways that nature takes care of us and what we give back in return.

Speaking of taking care—in April we host stewardship events at our natural area plantings. If you’ve never been to one, you’re missing out. Maybe it’s not as glamorous as planting, but it is oh so satisfying to be a part of an epic bucket brigade and see a huge pile of mulch dwindle to nothing as we spread it around my native plant friends, newly planted and in need of some protection from the summer heat. Stewardship events are always buzzing with activity as people shuttle wheelbarrows and buckets from pile to plant. With warmer weather, almost everyone is in short sleeves and sunglasses!

To me, stewardship means real care over time. We don’t just plant and walk away. We do what we can to make sure trees and native plants get established so that they do more than just survive. They thrive! To me there’s no better way to celebrate Earth Month and the end of the planting season than by taking care of these new plants.

Another way to celebrate: Help Friends of Trees meet our Earth Month goal! Your support is how we meet our planting goals for the year AND provide all the establishment care trees and plants need. Thank you!

Sometimes on Earth Day I like to take to the streets to see how people celebrate. A few years ago, I went to Pioneer Square, and it was so fun to see people’s faces light up when they saw an oak tree waving at them in downtown Portland! All the kids were especially psyched, and I just LOVE that.

Maybe they’re just excited about my winning smile, but I always say that once you love one tree, you love them all. And if you love trees, you love nature. Earth Month is really about making sure that the Earth is well taken care of for future generations. And getting those future generations involved is super duper important. That’s why we have education programs and workforce training and planting events that are all ages!

Last year, Earth Month was extra special because we planted our Millionth Tree! I’m still treasuring that day, when so many supporters showed up at the Friends of Trees office to celebrate our history and everything we’ve accomplished together. And now I have a new best bud, Silvie, the silverleaf oak that we planted as our millionth tree.

Silvie is one heck of a tree. They’re tough enough to deal with the traffic and the heat. They keep their leaves all year round so they never take a break from cleaning the air. (I personally prefer to drop my leaves, but hey, we’re all unique.) Despite their toughness, Silvie is a generous tree at heart, eager to provide shade on folks walking down the sidewalk.

When I think of Earth Month, and when I think of that silverleaf oak, I think of resilience. The Earth is resilient, and will outlast even the oldest oaks, but for now we’re striving to live in harmony with it. It’s all about taking care of each other.

Take care,

Garry

P.S. Read my whole diary here!

Business Support

Get To Know Honl Tree Care

A tree care company from a former Friends of Trees staff member!

Why is Honl Tree Care one of our favorite arborist partners? We go way back! Its founder, Chad Honl, was a Friends of Trees volunteer, then a Friends of Trees staff member managing our Neighborhood Trees program from 2000-2005. In fact, Chad was the very first ISA Certified Arborist on staff (now we have seven!).

“Friends of Trees really set me up,” Chad says. “I received so much guidance, and I’m thankful for all the volunteers that educated me.”

Chad’s contributions at Friends of Trees certainly helped us reach our 1,000,000 tree and native shrub milestone. The team was planting over 2000 trees each season while he was there. But his legacy goes beyond numbers. He also helped increase survival rates and worked with Portland Urban Forestry to expand the approved street tree list.

Chad left Friends of Trees to pursue a teaching career, but he found his way back to trees. What started as Chad doing tree care work with his wife’s pickup truck turned into Honl Tree Care in 2009. Now, Chad has a staff of nine certified arborists specializing in care and pruning. Quality tree care is so important for the health of our community forest, especially with environmental challenges like climate change and ice storms.

“Friends of Trees has created so many connections that have helped me grow my business,” Chad says. “And I could have grown more, but decided to focus on quality over quantity.”

“Chad has such an incredible legacy at Friends of Trees, and he continues to be an important part of the tree care community in Portland,” says Friends of Trees Executive Director Yashar Vasef. “We’re so grateful for his support and to call him a friend.”

Chad remains connected to Friends of Trees, and supported our Millionth Tree campaign as one of our partners. He loves trees, and he loves the connections people make while planting them.

“Friends of trees had made such a great impact,” Chad says. “You’ll find such good people and so much inspiration.”

Learn more about Honl Tree Care here.

Tree Care

Fall Tree Care Tips

Steps to take to get your tree ready for the winter ahead

Enjoy what’s left of the fall color

Fall brings cooler days, longer nights, the return of rain, an extra layer or two when we head out, and the striking colors on display gifted to us by nature.

You’re not the only one who has felt the days getting shorter. Our trees noticed, too, and they’ve taken it as a sign that the growing season is over. How do they notice? A hormone response is triggered by the shorter daylight hours, the angle of the sun, and the cooler temps.

In a process called abscission, trees reabsorb the nutrients stored in the leaves before detaching and shedding them. Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their green color, is one of the first things to be absorbed, which is why we see them change color.

Leave the Leaves

Fallen leaves still have plenty of nutrients, which is why we encourage you to leave the leaves. Trees are putting those leaves there on purpose! We have a habit as a society to rake and dispose of leaves, but leaves are vitamins for plants and magic for building the health and vitality of soil, especially where urban soils are devoid of nutrients. Think of your leaves as free fertilizer!

You can use your leaves like mulch and rake them under your trees to nourish the roots (but keep them away from the trunk). Just like you would with mulch, follow the 3-3-3 rule: 3 inches away from the trunk, 3 inches deep, and at least a 3 foot radius. Covering the whole root zone is ideal, and the larger the tree, the wider the root zone.

Mulch for winter

Roots can grow year round in the right conditions—moisture, air, and temperature. We plant when the trees are dormant above ground so that they can focus on establishing their roots. To help keep those conditions right for your young tree, make sure you replenish your mulch for winter.

Just like mulch keeps roots cool in summer, it keeps them warm in winter. And it will protect from the drying effects of winter winds. One inch of mulch is a windbreaker, three inches is like a down jacket. Just follow the 3-3-3 rule!

Prune potential hazards

It’s a good time of year to take care of maintenance of your medium and large trees. Last winter, we saw some serious winter storms. The best thing we can be doing this time of year to make our trees more storm resilient is pruning. The combination of wind and ice can lead to branch failure—in short, nature prunes itself. That’s exactly why it’s best to prune problem areas now rather than waiting until snow and ice is predicted. Ice can increase the weight load on a branch by up to 30 times.

Now is a great time to have an arborist out to inspect your trees!

Tree Care

The Tell-Tale Soil

Inspector Intern & The Case of the Dry Leaves

by Josh Celio Espinoza

Unleashing my inner Johnny Appleseed was not on my summer schedule. I expected to spend my Communications & Business Relations internship at Friends of Trees behind a desk, researching potential business partners and monitoring social media metrics. As it turns out, that is only half the story. The other half involves filming staff gushing about their favorite trees, exploring local parks with the community, and learning how to identify native plant species with the best of them (a.k.a, my coworkers).

Recently, my job took me to the beautiful neighborhoods of southern Vancouver to inspect trees. Armed with a pencil, clipboard, and a sunny disposition, I hit the streets. From checking the moisture levels of the soil to making sure the mulch had the perfect donut shape, I had my work cut out for me. But as they say, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.

The goal of the Friends of Trees summer inspection program is to make sure that our newly planted trees (in their first 1-3 summers) are healthy and thriving. As a volunteer summer inspector, you’ll get to share your tree knowledge with your community, learn how to spot healthy and unhealthy trees, and ensure the survival of these young trees.

I’ve learned that, here at Friends of Trees, we don’t just plant and walk away. If a tree has dry leaves, we figure out why. Most likely, it needs more water. Mystery solved!

A tree inspector checks the branches of a tree.

 

When speaking with Litzy Venturi, our Community Tree Care Coordinator, I gathered that this program isn’t simply about inspecting newly established trees.

“A lot of these volunteers have gotten a tree themselves and by inspecting these neighborhoods, they get to form a relationship with not only the neighborhood trees, but the neighborhood itself. You get to bond with others in your community about your shared passion.”

After I took the requisite training, which only took me a couple of hours, I was assigned a route. A great aspect of this role is that you can make your hours. I picked a cool summer morning to explore my route’s neighborhood and find my new tree friends to see how they were doing.

The whole inspection process was cathartic, methodically checking each aspect of the tree for damage or irregularities. Even more than that, every house was unique in its inspection. Some had lush gardens. Others had intricate decorations all around. Only one had a large, loving cat named Biscuits, even if I wish he was at all the houses.

The one constant I found was that all these homeowners truly invested in their tree’s well-being. Everyone was delighted that their trees were being inspected, but even more so that they were doing their part for the environment. “I’ll be sure to be bright and early for your guy’s next planting,” said Catherine Ricci, a Treecipient. As I continue my internship, I realize that Friends of Trees goes beyond planting trees—they create a community invested in climate advocacy.