Tree Summit

Tree Summit 2025 "Tree Stories"

On Saturday April 5, 2025 community members gathered at St Johns Community Center for Tree Summit 2025!

Tree Summit 2025 included engaging presentations:

View full size image of Cover of the book "The Tree Collectors" by Amy Stewart

• The Tree Collectors. New York Times best-selling author Amy Stewart shared stories of people who have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees from her latest book “The Tree Collectors”.

   

• Urban Forestry's Science and Policy workgroup shared the results of the Street Tree Inventory Project, and debuted a new interactive Street Tree Inventory Report.

• Vanport Trees: Potential Survivors of the 1948 Flood. Dave Hedberg (Outdoor History Consulting), Ryan Gilpin (Nidus Consulting) and Thomas Meinzen (Vanport Placemarking Project) presented on their project locating trees that may have survived the Vanport flood.

Attendees also enjoyed a social hour and meet and greet with community partners working to care for and expand our urban canopy, including:

• Trees For Life Oregon
• Friends of Trees
• Portland Fruit Tree Project
• Verde NW
• Multnomah County Library
• Urban Forestry's Heritage Tree Program
• The Blueprint Foundation
• Neighborhood Tree Stewards

Urban Forestry has hosted Tree Summit events every year since 2011 (with a brief pandemic break). Originally an outgrowth of the Tree Inventory Project, the Tree Summit has evolved to become a space for neighbors and partners to connect, learn, and strengthen wider efforts to grow, care for, and protect our urban canopy together.

View full size image of A diverse group of community members and Urban Forestry staff posing for a group photo to celebrate Arbor Day 2023. This photo was taken in the fall and the group is holding a flag honoring Portland as a Tree City USA.

Presentation Archives

2024

2019

Canopy Stories: 82nd and Verdant 

2018

2017

2016

Canopy Analytics

2015

2014

2013

About Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry

View full size image of Close-up image of the cone of a Douglas-fir tree.

The mission of PP&R’s Urban Forestry (UF) division is to manage and care for Portland's tree infrastructure in the City for current and future generations. Portland’s urban forest consists of 220,000 street trees, 1.2 million park trees, and innumerable private property trees. The Urban Forestry division is involved in managing or regulating these trees. UF created and implements the City of Portland's Urban Forest Management Plan, fosters community tree awareness and stewardship, develops tree policies and programs, monitors and assesses Portland’s urban forest, and issues permits for planting, pruning, and removal of public and some private trees. During extreme weather at all times of the year, UF crews respond to tree emergencies to keep you safe and the City moving.

For more information on Urban Forestry at portland.gov/trees.