You involve the public in many ways.
Which would you like to highlight?
Gina: I'd like to mention our workshops throughout
the year that are open to the public, which are
on a wide variety of topics like Tree ID or tree
walks or can involve the Heritage Tree program.
We also do a workshop on local tree care, strictly
for the arborist audience, to educate and update
them on tree code topics. We used to have fre-
quent tree inventory workdays for volunteers until
those inventories were wrapped. That program
alone had over 2000 volunteers giving nearly
25,000 hours during the life of the inventory!
We have a yard tree giveaway program that has given
out more than 1800 trees to Portlanders across the
city; 76% of those trees have gone to low-income or
low-canopy neighborhoods, and 77% of those trees
were large-form evergreen or native trees which
means more tree benefits in the future.
Is there anything else you would
like to share with your colleagues?
Gina: Parks has found that of their full-time
employees, about 50% started out as part-time sea-
sonals. The Portland Parks and Recreation Youth
Conservation Crew (YCC) program was created in
2009 with the intention of providing a pathway for
a more diverse group of young people to advance
within Parks. There are 6 teams of youth ages 14-19
who work for 8 weeks during the summer as paid
employees under the direction of a YCC crew leader.
YCC members learn about trees and perform
tree work on park and school plantings, including
mulching, weeding, and pruning. They go on field
trips around the area to learn about different aspects
of urban forestry, from nurseries to state forests, and
they get to work closely with our urban forestry staff.
We are hoping to expand this successful program.
Portland City Forester & Urban Forestry Division
Manager Jennifer Cairo awards resident Carol Lee the
Bill Naito Community Trees Award for Outstanding
Volunteer Service. Photo Courtesy Ken Rumbaugh
urban-forestry.com 35
