Early Spring Edition  | Early March 2020
Community Tree Connections
The Newsletter of Oregon's Urban & Community Forestry 
Assistance Program


Deadlines and Dates for upcoming events, awards, and grants.

 
Oregon Arbor Week is traditionally observed the first full week in April, this year it will be  April 5-11, 2020.

National Arbor Day is  April 24th, 2020.

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SAVE THE DATES:

2020 Oregon Annual Urban and Community
Forestry Conference
World Forestry Center
Portland, OR
June 4, 2020
  (See article, right)

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PNW-ISA Chapter -  Annual  Training Conference
Coeur D'Alene, ID
Oct 4-7, 2020
for more information go  HERE  (At the time of publishing this newsletter, accommodation information is posted, but nothing yet about the conference agenda.)

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Partners in Community Forestry Conferenc e
Louisville, Kentucky
November 18-19, 2020
conference web page (in process) 
(You can view the 2019 agenda, the 2020 agenda is still TBD.)

          Ongoing 

PNW-ISA classes on tree care.  For upcoming classes go HERE.

Urban Forest Connections Webinar Series. USDA Forest Service Research (2nd Wednesdays of the month) - Info, registration, and class descriptions  HERE You can view past webinars too.

Learn at Lunch Webinars
Due to recent staffing changes, Utah State University Extension will not be hosting new webinars after Feb 2020. However, a large archive of past webinars, going back about 8 years!, can be found   HERE - just scroll down to the bottom.
 
Tree Fund Webinars
Perhaps the least well known of urban forestry webinars, the Tree Fund presentations are excellent! Info, registration, archive, and class descriptions  HERE

We've Come Across Some Interesting Articles Lately*
(Note: none of these articles were behind a "paywall" when originally included here.)

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from Bitterroot Magazine (featuring ODF-UCF staff!)
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The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall  from Eos. Earth and Space Science News.
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The Secret That Helps Some Trees Live More Than 1,000 Years  from the New York Times (Trilobites)
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* Appreciation to P. Farrell for sharing great links!

Other links of interest: 
 
Have you noticed a lot of storm water runoff and flooding this year? This is a reminder that you can learn about Low Impact Development from OSU Extension's  Low Impact Development Factsheets
 

Quick Links
Oregon Heritage Trees
Contact Us
Kristin Ramstad 
Urban & Community Forestry Program Manager
503-945-7390
Katie Lompa
Community Assistance Forester
541- 480-3790

About
Community Tree Connections (CTC) is a periodic publication by the Oregon Department of Forestry, Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program. Our mission is to help Oregonians improve their quality of life by promoting community investment in our urban forests. Subscriptions to this newsletter are free and available by contacting ODF. CTC is published in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Connect with Us
Happy New Decade!

When we started this newsletter in January, we were in the throes of winter. Then our lives got busy with putting the final touches on Tree City and Tree Campus USA application reviews, and preparing for a program review. This newsletter was back- burnered . Now just a few weeks later, Spring is upon us! 

2020 promises to be a year of change. We encourage all Oregon cities and tree lovers everywhere to: 
  • get involved with the statewide Tree Mapping project 
  • attend the annual Urban Forestry conference in June
  • consider helping your town, school, or local utility become a Tree City, Tree Campus, or Tree Line USA
  • take a look at the cities and schools who have planted or will be planting Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace Trees  this spring, or 
  • simply watch an urban forestry webinar. 
Both Katie and Kristin will soon have Zoom video-conferencing "office hours" to answer your urban forestry and tree mapping-related questions.

Hoping you're getting trees -- and peas - in the ground.
 
Kristin Ramstad and Katie Lompa
Oregon U&CF Assistance Program   

p.s. It took us so long to get this newsletter done that new UCF news is on our doorstep. Expect to see another CTC newsletter within the month with more information about the annual conference speakers, Tree City USAs, UCF award winners, Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace Trees, and much more!
Please Join Us!
for the 
2020 Oregon Urban & Community 
Forestry Conference!
"Water-Wise Community Forests: 
Strategies for Oregon's Future" 
Thursday, June 4, 2020
World Forestry Center, Portland

Co-hosted by the Oregon Department of Fo restry, the USDA Forest Service, and Oregon Community Trees this year's annual U&CF conference will feature speakers on the Best Management Practices for community trees in dry times and in wet times. How does drought stress affect tree health? What trees can thrive in a drier climate?

The Oregon Annual U&CF conference is funded primarily through registrations and generous sponsorships. Both the EventBrite registration form and Sponsorship form links can  or soon will be found on the Oregon Community Trees conference page  HERE.  More information about the conference will be coming in soon in the next newsletter.
Inventory and Mapping Project is Underway!

We know many of you have been waiting to get started on mapping your cities trees with the state's new Tree Plotter Inventory software. 

For those of you who have already sent an email to Kristin with "Tree Mapping Interest" in the subject line, you should have received a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document from her. If you have not received this, you can find the document  HERE on the Oregon Department of Forestry U&CF webpage.

If your city has an inventory, please consider sharing your inventory data with us to help build-out the statewide tree database. The data should be in .csv file with location coordinates, or a shape file. For more info, please take a look at the FAQs or contact  Kristin.

Soon we will have an official "Landing Page" where all can view the tree inventories in progress and the tree data from those cities who have shared theirs with us. We will be scheduling some training webinars this spring and summer, and expect to be bringing on some assistants to help cities get accustomed to the software. Please get in touch with Kristin to be included in emails about the project.

This just in! Ian Hanou, founder and CEO of PlanIT Geo, will be making a presentation on Tree Plotter Inventory at the June Urban Forestry Conference!
Springtime Activities in Your Community Forest !
 
Urban forestry activities in February-May focus primarily on planting and pruning trees. In Western Oregon, planting as soon as possible after the turn of the year is encouraged -- even early April is a bit late to plant (especially a bare-root) tree. In Eastern Oregon, tree planting may need to wait until the soil thaws later in the spring. 
 
Too often cities require the planting of new trees in new developments without giving contractors clear specifications on how to do it properly. Look no further than University of Florida's Dr. Ed Gilman's website for Details and Specifications of planting, staking, irrigating trees HERE.
 
Pruning while a tree is dormant may result in significant growth in the spring (i.e., your tree will not remain short!). Another time to prune is in early summer after a tree's leaves have been fully-expanded for 2-3 weeks. Some flowering trees have specific times for pruning depending on whether they naturally flower on currently year's growth or previous year's growth. Other trees should be pruned at a time of year when their newly exposed pruned tissue will not attract disease-carrying insects. Best to check with local arborists, urban foresters, and extension agents about these details.
 
Regardless of when you prune, did you know that the structural pruning of young trees can save your city money and headaches down the road? Dr. Gilman has also researched the attributes that contribute to trees withstanding hurricanes in Florida. Here are his pruning tips for a stronger tree: 
  • Develop or maintain a dominant leader
  • Identify lowest branch in the permanent canopy
  • Prevent branches below the permanent canopy from growing upright or too large
  • Space main branches along a dominant trunk
  • Keep all branches less than one-half the trunk diameter
  • Suppress growth on branches with bark inclusions
News from Oregon Community Trees  

Oregon Community Trees (OCT) is welcoming three new directors in 2020. Community Tree Connections asked the new directors: (1) What do you see as the biggest challenge(s) to promoting U&CF awareness in Oregon? and (2) If you could tell a homeowner one thing about tree care, what would it be?

Brett Huet works as an arborist in Bend, a city that has been developing rapidly for the past two decades. When it comes to promoting U&CF awareness, he observed, one challenge is " how management decisions made during times of rapid development and growth will establish the future success of our urban forests." So true. Trees are often overlooked and undervalued, and poorly planned-for, when cities grow quickly. 

Heidi Lakics who works for the City of Eugene, wrote  "c apturing and keeping attention [on U&CF] in an era of media overload" is a huge challenge. For most people, many of whom do not read this newsletter, trees and urban forestry are certainly not "front of mind."

Rudy Roquemore , who works for Friends of Trees in Portland, identified the challenge as "finding a way to connect U&CF to people's lives in an authentic and tangible way. Many folks have more immediate concerns like financial or transportation instability... so I think it's important for our sectors to align with more intentionality to bring about the genuine collaboration that can build trust and make U&CF relevant for a wider population." City decision-makers and activists, even with the best intentions of increasing neighborhood tree canopy, are often completely out of touch with a community when they dismiss more pressing priorities of neighborhood groups, especially when many residents are living in "survival mode" and/or feel unsafe. 

As for what to tell a homeowner about tree care, the new Directors think homeowners need to know more about the importance of hiring tree care professionals who know what their doing, (e.g.  ISA-certified arborists), and the need for early structural pruning for trees -- not only for benefiting trees, but also for the cost savings that result from early pruning. (See related article above.)

Welcome to all of you. Thank you for committing your time to volunteer for Oregon Community Trees. 

meeting_coffee.jpg A New Tool for Community Outreach: What is "Zoom" video-conferencing?

Video conferencing allows users in different locations to hold face-to-face meetings without having to be in a single location together. The ODF-UCF program staff have added Zoom, one of many video-conferencing platforms available, to their assistance toolbox. With Zoom, city staff from one or more cities can connect with us - at the same time! We have also found Zoom useful when the sharing of our computer screens (both city staff and ours) benefits the conversation.  

To use Zoom, you will need a computer that is connected to the internet. Ideally the computer has a camera and a microphone. If there is no microphone available, you will use a phone to listen to the conversation while viewing your computer screen. No camera? No worries. You will still see one of us, we just won't see you.

Want to give it a try? In March, Katie has scheduled "open Zoom hours" for every Thursday from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. To reach her during these hours using Zoom, click on the link or call the phone number that she has listed in her email signature. Connect with  Katie to get this information. Kristin will be hosting Zoom hours to connect, discuss, and troubleshoot anything related to the tree mapping project starting in April.

Your "Click of Trees" *
     
Your "reward" for reading all the way down... a link to an interesting tree feature(s) on the web.
books_on_shelves_two-tone.jpg

So many books, so little time... Enjoy this  LIST of n otable "tree reads."

And, for those of you interested in urban wood products, check out this blog post from Taylor Guitars who are utilizing urban wood for making their guitars! (Makes sure to click on the link near the end of the post to see and hear one of these guitars.)

*Credit to OPB's online newsletter and "Click of Zen" feature.