Friends of Trees brings people in the Portland-Vancouver area together to plant trees along city streets and in urban natural areas. Since 1989, our thousands of volunteers have planted more than 360,000 trees and native plants in the Portland-Vancouver area. According to a recent study by Portland Parks & Recreation's City Nature Urban Forestry, Portland's trees intercept 25 million pounds of air pollutants and keep half a billion gallons of stormwater from polluting our rivers every year. U.S. Forest Service Researcher Geoffrey Donovan's March 2008 report on the impact of trees on the value of Portland homes shows that the benefits of trees outweigh their cost by ten to one.

A Portland State University study shows the greatest increase in tree canopy in neighborhoods where Friends of Trees has planted. The study refers to this as "the Friends of Trees effect." The complete report is at "PDF" at the bottom of the PSU Cartographic Center web page. An October Columbian editorial encourages Vancouver residents to plant with Friends of Trees to expand Vancouver's canopy. During the recent planting season, Friends of Trees planted 250 percent more trees in Vancouver than during the previous planting season.

Friends of Trees has received national awards for building community and increasing Portland's tree canopy since 1989, while a dozen major U.S. cities lost significant tree cover. Friends of Trees is a member of the Alliance for Community Trees, Oregon Community Trees, and Earth Share of Oregon.

Portland's park blocks circa 1878

Portland's park blocks today