www.PortlandParks.org

Life After Tree Inventory Inspiring Community Stewardship

Alliance For Community Trees Day November 15, 2016

Angie.DiSalvo@portlandoregon.gov www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/treeinventory

www.PortlandParks.org

Portland, Oregon’s Volunteer Tree Inventory218,610 trees inventoried from 2010-20161,400 volunteers 17,000 hours volunteered

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• Inequitable distribution• Overly reliant on Acer

and Prunus• Low diversity• Few evergreens• Few trees >24” DBH• Many large sites

planted with small trees

Key Findings

c27% of Portland’s street trees are maples

www.PortlandParks.org

• Planting lists updated early in the project

• Inventory migrated to asset management system

• Plan to re-inventory every ten years

• Data informs strategies and plans

• Resources allocated to low canopy and low income areas

Policy Changes

20 evergreen species added to lists and maples removed

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• Development of citywide planting strategy

• Increase in strategic partnerships

• Resource allocation revisited

• Addressing funding for maintenance

Equitable Canopy Distribution

Grant Park

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• >20 Tree Teams nurtured• Ongoing event partnerships via

“Workshop Menu”

Inspiring Community Stewardship

• Seed money and resources for small projects

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Challenges• Maintaining long term

momentum• Trees and technical

knowledge are the easy part (people are more challenging!)

• Developing trust• Engaging underrepresented

communities• Addressing lack of

resources and need for maintenance funding

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Success Stories• Neighborhood Tree Plans

created• School, park, private tree

plantings• Young tree pruning events• Neighborhood specific

planting lists• Heritage Tree nominations• Increased volunteer

engagementVolunteers prune >1600 young trees pruned each year

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Cherry tree replacement in Albina