Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

  • Home
  • Get Involved
    • Upcoming Events
    • Events Calendar
    • CNA Meetings
    • Land Use & Transportation Committee (LUTC)
    • Media Team
    • Concordia Commons
    • Concordia News Submissions
    • Our Association
      • Bylaws
      • Directors & Staff
      • 2024 Budget
      • Donate
  • Concordia News
    • Advertise
    • Concordia News Issues
    • Write for Concordia News
  • Community Room
    • Community Room Rental
    • Community Partners Guidelines
    • Community Room Calendar
  • Resources
    • Services & Agencies
    • Schools
  • Contact

One local gnome tree leads to many more

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News, Family

By Nancy Varekamp & Dan Werle | CNA Media Team

Three-year-old Adya Soasey and her father share a love for gnomes and the local trees the miniature, fictional creatures inhabit. Photo by Mark Soasey

What began as a weekly visit to a “gnome tree” on Ainsworth Street has become an activity that is now spreading across Concordia and Portland.

Mark Soasey and three-year-old daughter Adya always stop to admire the gnome-size door within a nook of the tree’s roots. It’s adorned with little treasures from other admirers. Their visits not only add some fun to their walks, but also became an interactive pastime that affords social distance.

“My daughter would always bring a gift of her own to leave for the resident gnome,” he reported. Never seeing the miniature, fictional creature who lives inside doesn’t seem to deter her.

Mark and Adya began providing housing to more gnomes, along with treasure exchanges for children. Together, they have decorated five trees so far, and have identified several other pre-existing sites.

“Because of my experience in woodworking, fashioning the wooden doors with metal knobs was a fun and relatively easy project to work on with my daughter,” Mark reported.

Behind those doors, they leave notes to the gnomes they are certain live in each tree and/or greetings to Adya’s fellow gnome tree explorers. They also fill resealable plastic bags with shells, rocks, handmade jewelry and more – items designed to be exchanged with new gifts from each explorer who discovers them.

The duo makes the effort to respect the surrounding nature during construction of the gnome trees. “We avoid any larger holes that could be used as regular habitat for animals and/or for seasonal food caches,” he pointed out.

“Instead, we attempt to select a recess only large enough to house our treasure bag and accommodate a custom-made door.”

But they didn’t stop with nearby Fernhill Park, Alberta Park and the parking strips of Concordia. Mark created PortlandGnomeTrees.com to share DIY door-building tips, invite others to create gnome trees and maintain a map that identifies their locations across the city.

He hopes to hear about existing displays and/or treasure trees to add to the map, as well as new locations created by community members.

“The gnome and faerie trees have long since been established throughout Portland and were the key inspiration behind the development of this project,” he explained. “Our goal is to continue to expand the content of the Portland Gnome Tree Map.

“This is about engaging one’s imagination while exploring nature, and reinforcing creative thinking, sharing and giving,” Mark said. “It’s a means of showing respect to the resident gnomes and fellow participants.”

« Draft CNA LUTC Agenda: Wednesday, April 21st, 2021
News from the NET – NETs are about more than earthquakes »

To connect Concordia residents and businesses – inform, educate and report on activities, issues and opportunities of the neighborhood.

Concordia Neighborhood Association will abstain from publishing anything that could be construed as libel.

Upcoming Events

CNA Meetings

Click here to learn about upcoming CNA meetings and how to attend.

CNA’s Facebook Group

Join us for neighborhood discussion, event updates, meeting minutes and more on our Facebook Group.

Categories

  • Archive
  • Arts & Culture
  • CNA
  • Concordia News
  • CU Sale
  • Events
  • Family
  • Gardening
  • Health and Wellness
  • History
  • Land Use & Transportation
  • Local Businesses
  • News from the NET
  • Opinion
  • Schools
  • Trees
  • Uncategorized
  • Volunteer Opportunities
CyberChimps ©2025