Stumps, Trees & Wells

La Vida Local
Irregular Notes on West End Life

Stumps, Trees & Wells

By Rosanne Graef

Between the final days of winter and the emergence of the first leaves, Herb Adams trudged the streets of Parkside, clipboard in hand, conducting Portland’s first neighborhood street tree survey. The impetus for this project was CMP’s cutting of a large, mature maple deemed “inconvenient.” Needless to say, the neighborhood was outraged, and the tree count was born.

On the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, the Parkside Neighborhood Association presented their Street Tree Survey to the City.

Details of the Parkside Street Tree Survey:

• 510 street trees
• 18 stumps to be removed and replaced
• 12 empty tree wells to be filled
• 4 sealed tree wells to be opened and planted

The city’s Forestry Division has planted some new trees in Parkside already. Adams says all neighborhoods should form a planting partnership with the City, as well as advocate for a second tree-planting team for 2023.

For Adams, “To plant a tree is to show faith in the future, and in days like these we need that more than ever.”

Liz Parsons’s moment of outrage occurred a few years ago when several healthy, mature trees were unceremoniously cut near the former Convent of the Precious Blood. That led her to spearhead the movement that resulted in the adoption of Portland’s Heritage Tree Ordinance. She hopes to see this ordinance expanded to protect trees throughout Portland.

But waiting for that to happen, Parsons is focused on the street tree canopy, especially on the peninsula.

Parsons plans to take Adams’s advice and build a team to conduct a similar tree survey in the West End Neighborhood Association’s territory. In addition, she hopes to cultivate residents’ interest in caring for new trees by encouraging them to become Tree Adopters. Tree Adopters will water and keep ‘their’ tree’s planting area free of trash, dog poop, and soil compaction.

As a kid, Parsons says she spent hours in her family’s backyard mulberry tree and took for granted that trees would always be plentiful and present. The natural world’s rapid destruction over the past several decades is now obvious, dangerous, and emotionally overwhelming. Many responses to the climate crisis are very technical, requiring certain expertise. But Parsons believes we’re all social creatures at heart.

“Nurturing trees — which do so much to reduce carbon pollution and heat, while also being beautiful — is something everyone can do, see, and feel,” she says. “Working on tree canopy, particularly street trees, in our own civic backyard is helpful and hopeful to me.”

I know I want to be a part of this tree project!

Confession time. When I was young I had a couple of imaginary friends, a fox named Chocly and a tree brilliantly named Tree-y. Tree-y was always there for me, so now’s my time to be there for real trees.

If you’re also interested in helping out with WENA’s tree inventory and/or tree adoption projects, please e-mail hello@wenamaine.org. Put “TREES” in the subject line.

Rosanne Graef lives in the West End and is a regular volunteer contributor. Email her at lavidalocalwen@gmail.com.