Tag: youth
Planting Day With Better Chances
Youth plant seven trees on Marine Drive, FOT communications intern Tony S. reports
I pull into a narrow strip of land on Marine Drive in North Portland on a crisp January morning. Today we are planting seven trees with 10 BIPOC youth from the nonprofit Better Chances. We trickle in. There are going to be quite a few of us. This land will be developed into housing, and we are here to help add some extra foliage for cooling, shade, and the many benefits trees provide.
I’m here as a participant in the Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training Program (AUF), and this is my first assignment as a communications intern. I’m joining two Friends of Trees staff and four fellow AUF graduates in leadership roles who are here to facilitate the planting.
Smoke rises from a little fire barrel. It helps to dispel some of the morning chill. A few kids in their early teens gravitate to the edge of a frozen stream nearby. They throw sticks onto the ice in hopes of a satisfying sploosh. In the clearing is a table with plenty of snacks and supplies. It’s a cozy vibe.
Better Chances, founded by Kadir Abdullahi and Talietha Mathis, focuses on academic support and vibrant extracurricular activities that build positive youth development. They do things such as play basketball, go to BBQ cook outs, and white-water rafting. There is focus on curiosity, play and sensory enjoyment of nature.
After a planting demonstration led by Thomas Meinzen, Neighborhood Trees Specialist with Friends of Trees, we split into groups to get some more individualized practice. We definitely have a few side quests. A frog is found and relocated to the edge of our planting area. Some holes are in the wrong spot! They need to be moved. One of our trees comes out of the pot with a tight root-bound ball. Two energetic kids step up. They put in extra effort sawing out a slice of the ball and freeing the circling roots to grow outward. Thankfully we have a lot of helping hands for our tasks.
By noon, the frost has melted in the warm mild sun, and we have most of our trees in the ground standing upright. The root-bound tree ended up chosen to be swapped for a sturdier one at a later date—a good learning example!
It is blissful to be out in nature, just playing and learning in a multigenerational group. I think there’s a real sense of ownership and placemaking in planting trees together. Housing will go up here and things will look different soon, but the trees will be here and they will accompany us through time. Over the years, these kids will be able to watch the trees they planted grow as they grow.
Thanks to everyone at Better Chances for planting with us!
Exploring New Neighborhoods and New Skills
Our youth pruning program provides hands-on experience to POIC and Blueprint participants
On a Wednesday morning at Alberta Park in Northeast Portland, young folks from the Blueprint Foundation and POIC (Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center) gather for a pruning event. They’ve been doing this for a few weeks, so there’s a lovely familiarity. While they wait to start, they’re chatting with their friends, exploring the park, and enjoying the cool morning air ahead of what will be a hot day.
Eventually, we circle up, and Friends of Trees staff review the pruning process in the form of trivia, complete with gummy bear rewards. The POIC and Blueprint students really know their stuff, Quentin in particular, who earns plenty of gummy bears that he redistributes among his team. Like Quentin, many of the POIC folks have been working with Friends of Trees for a while, leading crews at planting events during the planting season.
The week before, graduates from our Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training Program (AUF) walked through the neighborhood around Alberta Park, identifying street trees in need of pruning, and labeling those trees with a tag. This week, POIC and Blueprint students will join the AUF grads to revisit those trees, and with the guidance of a Pruning Leader or Friends of Trees staff, they’ll get out their pruners and prune those trees! This week, two AUF grads co-led a crew, a role they prepared for by attending pruning events last season.
“It’s really rewarding seeing the AUF grads step into the Pruning Leader role,” says Mario Catani, Neighborhood Trees Specialist.
This summer has a total of four youth pruning events in North, Northeast, and East Portland neighborhoods, with funding from Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods program. Our youth pruning program started in 2021 and has continued to evolve, with graduates from our Adult Urban Forestry Workforce Training program serving as mentors and Pruning Leaders. All the participants are paid for their time.
“It’s getting more and more intentional and meaningful each year,” says Community Tree Care Coordinator Litzy Venturi.
“This is an awesome way for us to work with Blueprint and POIC youth in the summertime,” says Workforce Development Manager Rudy Roquemore. “It’s a really cool opportunity to get to know each other in a more intimate setting.”
In this intimate setting, pruning is a collaborative effort. We split into groups and head out into the neighborhood with our list of addresses. When we locate a tagged tree, we take time to look at it and talk through the potential issues. Things like suckers, dead branches, crossing or rubbing branches, and co-dominant leaders. And together, students figure out how to address these issues in order of priority, while staying within the budget of pruning no more than 25% of the canopy.
“It’s awesome to revisit some of these neighborhoods to prune trees and to introduce the youth participants to different parts of the city,” Litzy says.
Lashay Gates, a Program Assistant at Blueprint, was a program participant herself before becoming a mentor and now serving in her current position. So she knows firsthand the value of this program for the students, beyond the joy of helping a tree.
“I love working with youth and getting outside,” Lashay says. “You’re outside with more people who look like you.”
For the students, the pleasures of pruning can be simple. Being outside, learning new skills, or just the satisfaction of making a good cut that shapes the tree for future success.
“I like the cutting part,” says Aiden from POIC. “It’s very stress relieving.”
One tree down, onto the next, and after a couple quick hours and half a dozen trees, a well-earned lunch in the park.
Partner Spotlight: POIC
POIC is part of the 11-member coalition for our IRA Community Forestry Grant
On a sunny Saturday morning at Gateway Green Park, volunteers gathered to plant native plants on the wooded hillside of the park. Many of the volunteer crews were led by quiet but capable young folks from POIC.
Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC) connects high school youth with career training, including partnering with Friends of Trees. POIC students train as crew leaders and lead Friends of Trees plantings throughout the season. Gateway Green was this cohort’s fifth event overall this season, and second as crew leaders.
“This season is going great,” says Leigh Rappaport, Program Manager for POIC’s Natural Resource Pathway. “They’re a really committed group. They care about what they’re doing and are thoughtful about making sure volunteers are having a good time.”
POIC is part of the 11-member coalition led by Friends of Trees that was awarded a $12 million Urban and Community Forestry Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Inflation Reduction Act grants. The grant will fund community forestry work including tree planting, natural area restoration, post-planting care, community education, opportunities for direct community input and participation, and workforce training.
Part of the grant will help fund POIC’s natural resource training for five years. “Having this funding gives us room to breathe” Leigh says. “We can really focus on the program.”
Beyond that, Leigh looks forward to all of the partnerships that will grow out of this expansive and collaborative project.
“We’re excited to be part of a coalition being built from the ground up.”
Youth Plantings Are Back!
Cascade Education Corps leads plantings with Fowler Middle School students
You can always hear eighth graders coming. On a clear day at Fowler Middle School in Tigard, Cascade Education Corps members eagerly awaited leading their first planting of the season. The shovels stood in a neat circle, the trees were placed where they needed to be planted, and with an excitement you could hear before you saw it, the students from Ms. Scheller’s science class arrived to do the work.
Friends of Trees has been working with kindergarten-through-eighth graders for over twenty years. This programming has taken different forms, starting with the “School Trees Program” in the late nineties. Since 2009, much of our youth engagement has been with our Green Space program. It was put on pause because of the pandemic, but with this planting at Fowler Middle, K-8 plantings are officially back!
The CEC are all high school students following an alternative path to graduation by working on hands-on environmental projects, gaining skills and knowledge that can lead to career opportunities. There were five CEC members here today with their crew leader, Michelle. By this point in the season, they were already planting experts ready to share their knowledge with the Fowler students.
“This can be a really meaningful experience for these students,” Michelle said to the crew before the eighth graders arrive. Kaled, one of the CEC members, knew this firsthand. He was a Fowler Middle School student himself and fondly remembers when he planted trees with the CEC.
The planting was at Dirksen Nature Park, conveniently adjacent to Fowler’s campus. After the students arrived, everyone introduced themselves, and talked about why planting native trees is important. Thinking big picture, one student immediately shouted, “climate change!” Thinking locally, Meng Vue, a Friends of Trees Green Space Specialist, talked with the students about how these plants would slow erosion and stabilize the stream that runs between the park and their school.
Then the kids split into groups, each led by a CEC member. They learned how deep to dig their holes, how to get the tree out of its pot, and how to replace the soil just right. With the pandemic causing so much need for virtual learning, the kids planted trees with eagerness and enthusiasm, grateful for a hands-on activity. In just 45 minutes, every student planted a tree.
“After all they’ve had to adapt to, It’s so great to get them outside like this,” Ms. Scheller said.
Three different classes participated throughout the day. Meng was beyond pleased with how well the CEC members worked with the students. “Teachers enjoy having the CEC teach the students,” Meng said. “It’s really bridging the gap between high school and middle school.”
This was just the first of six plantings scheduled this year at Fowler Middle School. Come spring, we’ll have plantings at Oregon Trail Elementary School in Clackamas County, with first-year forestry students from the Sabin Schellenberg Center serving as crew leaders. Youth engagement is critical to our mission—it creates the next generation of tree stewards in our community. On top of that, it’s just plain fun to see these kids get their hands dirty.
Special thanks to our partner Clean Water Services for supporting this work!
Get to know our partner: Chemawa Indian School
Friends of Trees has been partnering with Chemawa Indian School in Salem for more than five years. Our partnership includes training Chemawa students as Crew Leaders for our planting events in Salem and engaging hundreds of Chemawa students at tree planting and tree care events, including activities at the Chemawa Indian School campus.
This partnership has been driven by dedicated teachers and staff at Chemawa who are passionate about creating opportunities for the students to participate in their community through improving the environment while building their leadership skills.
Chemawa teacher Paula Stuart explains why the partnership is so valuable to Chemawa, “Friends of Trees’ offer to donate trees on Chemawa’s campus has increased awareness of the importance of environmental stewardship. Students who might not have otherwise noticed have joined in, sometimes merely tempted by donuts and hot chocolate, then catching the joy of working outside in teams of happy diggers.”
Paula continues, “Science teachers at the school have offered credit for participation and I am ever so happy that this active engagement has influenced several students’ interest in pursuing environmental careers.”
Finish reading here, where you will find the entire November edition of Treemail, our monthly e-news. Want to catch up on past issues of Treemail? They’re here!