Heads Up! Street Tree Pruning Coming Soon

Have you ever found yourself dodging that wayward branch at the last moment while walking or riding around the neighborhood? You can thank your neighbors when they finally get around to pruning those low-hanging branches - hopefully soon! The City will train and assist neighborhood volunteers (could be You) to prune Mt. Scott-Arleta’s street trees this summer (could be your tree). 

At least two sessions are scheduled from 7-9pm:  June 27 at the SE corner of Mt. Scott Park, and  July 11 at Arleta School. Contact portlandearthcare (at) gmail.com if you know about needy overgrown trees or would like to help. A neighborhood "tree friend" is needed for the area south of Harold and west of 70th Ave to coordinate stewardship efforts for a possible third event. Could this be you?

Many homeowners don’t know that they are responsible for the maintenance of street trees in front of their homes. The most noticeable offense is letting new growth "encroach" on the public Right of Way clearance height, whether it's the sidewalk (7.5 feet headroom) or a residential street (11 feet). Urban Forestry, a department of Portland Parks grants property owners much leeway in choosing which trees will adorn their house and garden, as long as they can play nice with trucks, pedestrians, and over-head power lines when they reach mature size.

Abutting property owners are asked to maintain these valuable neighborhood amenities and many homeowners take great enjoyment from them. These good neighbors reward the trees with wide rings of (weed-free) mulch and proper pruning to ensure healthy structure and long life. The Mt. Scott-Arleta Sustainability team wants to help all our residents to learn and use best practices for tree care. Street trees are a great opportunity to partner with the City to do this. Urban Forestry will offer a brief training at 6:30pm before each event and collect debris the following morning, as well as issue the free permits. In December of 2011, the Bureau of Environmental Services partnered with Friends of Trees to provide free street trees for many residents in Mt. Scott-Arleta. This fall, we'll be coming up on the time to "train" the trees for good structure. If you want to be part of the Street Tree Stewardship team, please consider attending one or all of these fun events. Contact MSANA Sustainability Rep. At-large Jonathan for more info: portlandearthcare (at) gmail.com