Life After Tree Inventory Inspiring Community Stewardship- Angie Di'Salvo

www.PortlandParks.org

Life After Tree Inventory Inspiring Community Stewardship

Alliance For Community Trees Day November 15, 2016

[email protected] www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/treeinventory

mailto:[email protected]


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


• 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


• 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


• Development of citywide planting strategy

• Increase in strategic partnerships

• Resource allocation revisited

• Addressing funding for maintenance

Equitable Canopy Distribution

Grant Park


• >20 Tree Teams nurtured• Ongoing event partnerships via

“Workshop Menu”

Inspiring Community Stewardship

• Seed money and resources for small projects


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


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


Cherry tree replacement in Albina

Life After Tree Inventory Inspiring Community Stewardship- Angie Di'Salvo

Environment

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