Friends of Trees Will Work With City Again

The city of Portland announced this week it will once again contract with the nonprofit Friends of Trees to plant trees across the city. The city abruptly ended its contract with the nonprofit in 2022, for reasons that remain largely unclear.

But Friends of Trees is back: It’s been awarded a $1.8 million contract with the Urban Forestry division to plant 750 trees in the next two years and maintain the saplings for three years.

The contract is just one piece of the city’s plan to increase its tree-planting numbers from 3,500 to 10,000 annually, and to eventually shift the burden and cost of street tree maintenance from homeowners to the city.

Urban Forestry’s plan—to plant tens of thousands more trees and take on maintenance of all street trees—is funded by $117 million over a five-year period from the Portland Clean Energy Fund, a 1% sales tax on large retailers aimed at funding climate resiliency projects.