Category Archives: Trees

By Jim Gersbach and Ric Vetter | Concordia Tree Team

Did you enjoy the shade and coolness of neighborhood trees this summer? Many of those street and school trees in Concordia have been cared for by a dedicated group of neighbors who make up the Concordia Tree Team.

Our activities include pruning small street trees in the spring and fall, watering through the summer and occasionally working with other organizations such as Trees for Life Oregon, distributing watering buckets in various neighborhoods, and Portland Parks and Recreation, which works on tree planting.

Each autumn, we select a different area of Concordia to prune small street trees with the permission of the homeowner. Residents can consent to our services by following guidance on hangtags we leave on doors or by signing consent forms when our volunteers canvas the streets that will be covered this year.

If we prune your trees, please feel welcome to watch us work, ask questions and provide comments. The Concordia Tree Team has been involved in creating each of the neighborhood’s three arboretums, or tree museums.

The Ainsworth Linear Arboretum was established in 2005 at the request of Concordia neighborhood Tree Steward Jim Gersbach with support from volunteers from the Vernon and Woodlawn neighborhoods. The arboretum consists of the median and planting strip rows on 31 blocks of Ainsworth Street, from Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. to 37th Avenue.

You can learn more about the arboretum at AinsworthLinearArboretum.org.

Sixty years ago, the median was strongly dominated by Norway Maples, a tree that is now considered a nuisance species and can no longer be planted on city property. For the past 17 years, Gersbach has worked with Portland Parks and Recreation to select trees that are relatively rare in Portland to diversify the genetic mix along Ainsworth, as well as species that may thrive here as the climate changes. As old trees die, the maple monoculture is gradually giving way to a much more diverse treescape representing dozens of species and different genera.

The arboretum at Alliance High School at Meek Campus, 4039 NE Alberta Ct., was established in 2010 to form a learning landscape where students could learn about trees and biodiversity. Trees were selected from the currently successful and diverse oak genus and other genera that contain few members—or only one.

The Cully-Concordia International Grove, our third arboretum, is a collaborative project with the Cully neighborhood. Planted in March 2011, it is our youngest arboretum. The Bureau of Environmental Services funded the original planting after securing permission from the Oregon Department of Transportation, which owns the land. The goal was to slow stormwater runoff into the Columbia Slough, and to trial diverse species, including those that might be more climate resilient.

Trees were selected to represent every continent where they grow. Among them are Oregon myrtle; Mediterranean cork and holly oaks; a Mexican pine; an evergreen silverleaf oak from the U.S. Southwest; North African Atlas cedar; Chinese Pistache; Australian snow gums; giant sequoia and two Portland natives, Oregon white oak and Willamette Valley ponderosa pine.

Unfortunately, the neighborhood has learned that the Portland Bureau of Transportation intends to remove 14 of the 60-plus trees of the International Grove during construction to replace the bridge over Lombard at 42nd Avenue.

The young trees in all these tree museums require summer watering by our tree-team volunteers, who can be seen working on various nights and weekends at Meek and along Ainsworth.

The Concordia Tree Team was instrumental in securing Concordia’s first heritage tree, an American persimmon, as well as getting heritage status for one of the natural-form European hornbeams in Fernhill Park. We also provide water for park trees that appear to be struggling during our increasingly hot and dry summers.

The Tree Team was honored with a citation from Portland Parks and Recreation for meritorious work in organizing and executing the Fernhill Park tree inventory in 2018. This spring, with the help of many helpful Concordians, we pruned many small trees along Alberta Street in concert with other Earth Day volunteer activities.

Concordia was the first neighborhood in Portland to have its street trees inventoried in 2010. Tree Team members participated in that census. This summer, Concordia was again first in the city to have its street trees re-inventoried with help from the Tree Team. We look forward to sharing the results once they are tabulated by the City’s Urban Forestry staff.

If you’d like to be part of a fun, active group of Concordians and aren’t afraid of rolling up your sleeves to better the neighborhood, consider joining the Concordia Tree Team. We can be reached through the “Talk To Us” page on the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum Website, AinsworthLinearArboretum.org/talkto-us.

By Jim Gersbach | Linear Arboretum Founder, Concordia Tree Team Member

You’re invited to join me on a free walk to explore the Concordia Linear Arboretum Saturday, April 16. The 90-minute walk, sponsored by Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry, will start at 9 a.m. at the southeast corner of 30th Avenue and Ainsworth Street.

Concordia is fortunate to have one of a handful of Portland’s tree-lined medians. It’s a stretch of about 1.5 miles from Fernhill Park to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Since 2005, the median – and the right-of-way planting strips on the north and south sides of the street – have been designated by the city as an investigational arboretum.

Here, city residents can get to know less familiar, approved street trees, including ones in a trial for suitability in this climate.

Originally conceived as a grand entrance to the city from the east, Ainsworth was envisioned as a boulevard with a tree-lined median running from the Columbia Gorge to the Willamette River.

The only part ever developed as such is what exists today. The original Ainsworth planting was a classic monoculture – a single species of tree (Acer platanoides) that conformed to the uniform look so prized by European city planners. That made Ainsworth more vulnerable to any pest or disease that especially afflicted maples.

Portland’s mild climate can support hundreds of different tree species. As the city began to allow and then encourage more choices of species, many people still selected only what was familiar. Exposing people to great new options is what the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum is all about.

When trees die, we replace them with diverse species and new cultivars with better forms or disease resistance. Over 16 years, diversity in the median has grown from six to 47 species, and now there are trees native to Oregon.

Many people and organizations have helped. Trees and mulch have been provided by nurseries, Friends of Trees and Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry. The parks folks have also removed dead trees, ground the stumps to enable new plantings and watered young ones for the trees’ first two summers. Members of the city Youth Conservation Crew have weeded and mulched.

Because Portland has experienced multiple drought years, I have handwatered a lot of the trees beyond two years to help them establish.

Editor’s note: CNews space is limited, and there just wasn’t room for all of the information Jim Gersbach provided. To see his full-length story, visit ConcordiaPDX.org/2022-linear-arboretum-tour.

Concordian Jim Gersbach is public affairs specialist for the Oregon Department of Forestry and former urban forestry specialist for the city of Portland. His volunteer activities include serving on the Concordia Tree Team, founding the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum, acting as an outreach guide for the Hoyt Arboretum, and providing education as well as leading planting and pruning crews for Friends of Trees.

Haley Miller has her dream job at Friends of Trees. In fact it was trees – and the outdoor recreational opportunities – that brought her to Portland in 2010.

“Trees have just such a calming effect to me,” she explained. “If I feel really stressed or overwhelmed, I go to anywhere they have big trees.

“That’s why I think it’s important to get more trees in the city, so people who can’t make it to a national park can take a walk in their neighborhood park and see trees, and be around trees.”

Just as important are trees in parking strips, Haley added. “They provide shade and protection from wind and rain.” They also provide barriers for pedestrians from cars and tend to slow the traffic.”

Beyond emotional and esthetic qualities, environmental science credits trees for improving air quality and reducing “heat island” effects on hot days. “I love putting more trees in places that need them the most.”

She goes further than helping neighbors select trees to put in the ground. Friends of Trees has spawned community engagement around tree plantings. Although the organization serves the entire metro area, neighborhood trees senior specialist Haley is responsible for planning the planting events in Concordia, Vernon, Woodlawn and Piedmont neighborhoods.

After Friends of Trees accepts requests from local residents for trees in their yards, she plans morning-long planting efforts in the four neighborhoods.

Pre-pandemic, that meant creating a central staging area where about 200 volunteers met for breakfast and training. They divided into teams, each with an experienced team leader and about 10 trees to plant. They’d return by noon for a celebratory potluck lunch.

“People would meet each other, neighbors meeting neighbors,” she said. “The whole community aspect is really important to us.”

In a typical season – October through April – 6,000 volunteers donate about 40,000 hours.

During the pandemic, 21,311 trees and native shrubs trees were planted, but volunteers worked mostly solo. Those experienced volunteers were provided trees and locations to plant them.

“I was grateful and in awe,” Haley recalled. “They still came out in the rain on their own and planted the trees. It just shows how important trees are and how these volunteers respect that.”

Haley and her 27 colleagues at Friends of Trees are now planning how COVID-19 concerns will shape the upcoming planting season. For details as they become available, contact her at Haleym@FriendsOfTrees.org.

There’s one thing she can predict now with certainty. “We’ll engage the community in a way that feels safe and respectful.”

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, public relations and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.

Often, when homes in Concordia are demolished – to be replaced with new, larger homes – any existing mature trees on the site are also removed.

This practice can remove habitat for birds and animals, as well as remove the shading, cooling and air quality services trees provide to help mitigate the urban heat island effect.

But doesn’t Portland have an adopted city tree code that implements the Portland Urban Forest Plan and protects the beloved trees of our neighborhood?

According to research provided by neighbor Jordana Leeb, yes. And no.

Unfortunately, the current tree code exempts sites of under 5,000 square feet in size from tree preservation requirements when undergoing development.

What this means effectively is almost none of Concordia west of 33rd Avenue is subject to the Portland Tree Code:

• Parcels south of Killingsworth Street tend to have an average lot size of 4,000-5,000.
• Parcels north of Killingsworth sit on historically platted lots that are only 2,500 square feet.
• Even east of 33rd many parcels are – or can be – subdivided into lots of 5,000 square feet or less.

For sites over 5,000 square feet, onethird of all on-site trees over 12 inches in diameter are to be preserved, but applicants can choose to pay fees in lieu of preservation for any trees they wish to remove below this threshold.

The fee is only due, however, if the site isn’t eligible for an exemption from the tree code because a tree is:

• Dead, dying or could be declared dangerous by an arborist
• “Nuisance species”
• Exempted by a land use review
• Tree removals already approved through a land division or planned development
• Other reasons

Indeed, Portland’s tree code seems to be doing its part to help perpetuate Portland’s nickname: Stumptown.

Data from 2018 to 2020 citywide reports over 33 trees were chopped down that were at least a foot in diameter of the trunk at the breast height of the average person. Additional were uncounted trees with smaller diameter trunks.

The Portland Urban Forest Management Plan lacks any sort of quantitative goals to achieve in terms of tree canopy coverage, urban heat island mitigation or even tree planting.

Plans without goals are easier to achieve, which perhaps explains why this plan, policy and code do very little to actually preserve the trees of Concordia from being cut down during development.

According to the Portland Urban Forest Action Plan of 2020, 30.7% of the city is covered currently by tree canopy, up from 26% in 2002.

The plan does not state a goal for future tree canopy coverage; however, other cities have adopted goals. Nearby Milwaukie has a goal of increasing its tree canopy to 40% by 2040. Farther away, a tree canopy already covers 40% of Pittsburgh, which is still seeking to protect and expand tree coverage beyond that.

Garlynn Woodsong lives on 29th Avenue, serves on the CNA board and is an avid bicyclist. He also is a dad who is passionate about the city his son will inherit. He is the planning + development partner with Cascadia Partners LLC, a local urban planning firm. Contact him at LandUse@ConcordiaPDX.org.

Reminding a community of its differences and similarities, creating a living laboratory to study trees, filtering pollutants and noise from nearby arterial roads, acting as a gateway for people traveling from the airport to northeast Portland neighborhoods.

All these and more were the aspirations for creating the International Grove 10 years ago at the corner of 42nd Avenue and Lombard Street.

Developing the grove was part of the Bureau of Environmental Services Grey to Green Canopy Initiative. That eightyear commitment began in 2008 to increase the health of local watersheds.

Efforts included construction and planting projects to divert stormwater from the sewer system, reduce flooding and erosion, filter pollutants, provide habitat and increase neighborhood green space.

The Concordia and Cully tree teams and the Ainsworth Street Collective were involved in planning and planting the grove. Maintenance over the years has mainly been performed by volunteers.

To reflect the many cultures represented in nearby neighborhoods, the grove includes trees from six continents. Those trees include the Chilean beech and the Moroccan snow gum. This diversity is in contrast to the maples, ornamental cherries/plums and crabapples found widespread in the city.

A similar combination of trees was not anywhere else in the city, apart from perhaps Hoyt Arboretum, according to Robert Pallesen. In 2011 he served on the Concordia Neighborhood Association Tree Team.

“We will now have a unique arborscape that will look distinctive and attractive year round,” he told The Oregonian in 2011.

Planting different types of trees in the grove also offers an opportunity to study, over time, which trees could offer shade, mitigate climate change effects and filter air pollution.

For example, current day tree team members found the cork oak tree did much better in a recent ice-storm than expected.

“The grove is important because as northeast 42nd becomes denser and more built up, urban heat island effects will become more pronounced,” said Jim Gersbach, Concordia Tree Team member.

“Expanses of tree-shaded land will become even more precious and lifesaving as cool-air refuges,” he added.

Jordana Leeb is a longtime Concordia resident who is passionate about the neighborhood, its people and trees. She lives with her partner and newly adopted special needs dog. You can see her recent film about Concordia at TinyURL.com/ DiaryOfAStreet.

The future of the International Grove hangs in the balance. There are many threats to this unique stand of more than 60 trees, including people driving and parking inside the grove.

The most pressing issue on the minds of local tree and community advocates is the possibility the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will use the grove for two years as construction staging or parking.

That would be during the $12 million reconstruction project beginning next year on the 42nd Avenue overpass across Lombard Street. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) owns most of the grove’s land.

“Using the grove as a staging area is a concern because parking heavy equipment and materials would cause soil compaction,” said Jim Gersbach, Concordia Tree Team member and 20-year Concordia resident. “That can be deadly to trees because it prevents water and oxygen from reaching their roots.”

Moreover, staging work could injure tree bark and limbs. Tree advocates have identified alternative sites for construction staging.

Staff members from the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), residents of Nesika Illahee across 42nd Avenue from the grove and members of the Cully and Concordia tree teams met during the summer to talk about what they would like to see happen in the grove instead.

Nesika Illahee opened in early 2020 and was developed by NAYA and tribal and nontribal partners as affordable housing for Native Americans in recovery.

“I would like to help the grove grow,” said Angelique Saxton, resident services manager at the 59-unit complex.

“I have heard from the resident community they would like the grove to be part of Nesika and become more inviting, more people friendly and have safer access. It could be used for meditation, drumming, picnics and recovery meetings.”

Eleven organizations signed a joint letter to PBOT and ODOT to ask them to not use the area for construction staging. The letter also asks the agencies to consider pedestrian safety and to include Native American art and culture in the new bridge design.

These organizations included: NAYA, Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Verde, Hacienda Community Development Corporation, Our 42nd Ave, Cully Boulevard Alliance, Living Cully, Portland Clean Air, Cully Association of Neighbors, Concordia Neighborhood Association and Habitat for Humanity Portland Region.

Bob Granger, a member of the Cully Tree Team who helped plant the grove in 2011, is impressed with the efforts that led to that letter.

“I’m blown away at how this organic process has evolved into such a robust, holistic advocacy effort,” he said. “The inclusive and collaborative involvement of key neighborhood stakeholders is wonderful to see.”

Jordana Leeb is a longtime Concordia resident who is passionate about the neighborhood, its people and trees. She lives with her partner and newly adopted special needs dog. You can see her recent film about Concordia at TinyURL.com/DiaryOfAStreet.

By Karen Wells | CNA Media Team

The trees of Concordia University have stories. Those stories are about how Frank W.J. Sylwester – president of Concordia University from 1905 to 1946 – acquired an eclectic inventory of trees for the campus.

The grand Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana) is the sentry on Luther Hall Green. That oak was about eight years old when the college, then high school, opened its doors. It was one of the original trees in the Douglas fir woods of east Portland.

Frank was passionate about trees. When the right of way for 28th Avenue posed a threat to the oak, he advocated for the tree to be spared.

He satisfied his yearning for connection to his Germanic ancestry by planting trees germane to Germany. In 1908 he planted European Linden (Tilia × europaea) seedlings from Berlin. He purchased and planted a Spruce (Picea) from Germany. A Correl Tree (Oxydendrum arboreum) is a gift to the campus from Sylwester.

In 1920 Frank gathered Red Oak (Quercus rubra) acorns from Vernon Park, now known as Alberta Park, and planted them on campus. He recalled much later in life, “Every one of those acorns produced a tree.”

In 1960, he saved a small Sequoia (Sequoiadendron) at a campus building construction site. He replanted it in a stand of Incense Cedars (Liborcedrus decurrens). In 1964 he traveled to central Oregon and brought back a Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) seedling for the campus.

In the beginning, the president’s home was part of the campus, just north of Elizabeth Hall. He surrounded it with trees from his travels – Redleaf maples (Acer Palmatum) and Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) to name two. He had an inventory of 59 trees sorted by common and scientific name divided into five, creating the Campus Tree Project.

That project was published in 1974, “Arbor Vitae,” with anecdotal tales and tidbits of Concordia University history.

Karen is a retired early childhood community educator, health and safety trainer.