Of course, though, my first and foremost attachment to this area are the amazing and diversified trees.

It saddens me when a beautiful and seemingly healthy tree is toppled by mother nature – and, it always seems to be the glorious older trees affected the most. The “WHAT IF” thoughts start racing through my mind when the news coverage highlights tree damage from a strong storm.

What if… the tree had been regularly maintained. What if… the tree was given ample room to grow. The questions could go on. Seriously, though, there is a tremendous emphasis here on the importance of regular maintenance for a tree, especially urban trees. While many skip the thought of spending money to prune a tree, they forget (or maybe are not educated) about the impact improper pruning techniques can have on the structural integrity of a tree.

Think for a moment about a tree that may be growing next to a home. It is 30 feet to the top and it’s span is vast. Imagine the tree has been there for quite a few years and a homeowner decides it’s time to prune some of the branches away from the home – giving it some “building clearance”, as an Arborist would say. The way I see it, the homeowner has a couple options – hire an Arborist or Do It Yourself. Now, I’m not gonna lie, if I were the homeowner and this were a smaller, juvenille tree that needed a few snippets here and there – I myself might conquer the task on my own. However, the daunting task of conquering a 30-foot tree on one’s own is just asking for trouble.

The trouble starts with the huge risk of personal injury – let’s face it, most homeowners lost the “daredevil” attitude years ago. Adding to the layers of trouble, there is the major issue with the age of the tree as the technique to prune a mature tree is much different than that of younger trees. Plus, do you realize how much one of those “branches” actually weigh?!? Don’t be deceived, they are several hundred pounds heavier than your lowest guess.

Getting back to the initial scenario of building clearance. Let’s continue the story that the homeowner decided to tackle this project on his own. Since the tree provides beautiful curb appeal for the front of the home, the homeowner elects to just remove the branches extending toward the home and viola, building clearance.

Here’s the Disaster Equation… Wet Ground + High Winds + Improper Pruning = Disaster

The improper pruning in the formula is based on the fact that the pruning completed by the homeowner actually created a hazardous situation for the tree. By making such vigorous cutting/pruning on just one side of the tree (side next to home), it created an unbalanced structure within the tree – essentially the weight of the limbs/branches is not distributed evenly and is thus causes increased stress on the side gone un-pruned.

This situation places the tree in tremendous danger – the right mix of saturated grounds from winter or spring storms along with high wind gusts or sustained winds will cause this tree to fall over.

The video and photos shown in this blog post highlighted a tree in the Portland Metro area – the tree and homeowner are not representative of the fictional story portrayed above.

Special thanks to Oregon Tree Care for allowing local news coverage (KGW Newschannel 8 – Keely Chalmers reporting) to follow work for the day in the aftermath of a strong spring storm that barreled through the Pacific Northwest on April 5th.

PHOTO BY: STEVEN NEHL, THE OREGONIAN

If you haven’t travelled the North Portland area much, you are missing out on some amazing and unique scenary. One such item was recently named to the National Registry of Historic Places – a registry including such places like Timberline Lodge.

Our Paul Bunyan status was built in 1959 to greet visitors to the Oregon Centennial Exposition.

If you have not been by to visit Paul, take an afternoon and explore one of Portland’s eclectic icons.

Location: N Interstate and N Willis Blvd 

Articles About Paul Bunyan

North Portland’s Paul Bunyan is Officially Historic -  By Joe Brugger, The Oregonian February 09, 2009

Paul Bunyan Statue, Portland Oregon – www.roadsideamerica.com

Paul Bunyan - Wikipedia always has insightful information

Simply wanting to prune your trees located within a public right-of-way, otherwise know as “street side” requires a permit prior to engaging in any activity.

Oregon Tree Care will be devoting an entire page on our website to “Permitting” so that our area property owners can come to one place to find information and links to any municipality within the Portland Metro area. Stay tuned and keep checking back as the page will begin to grow over the next week.

The Portland Fruit Tree Project has a simple purpose yielding enormous results – over 4,600 pounds of food was harvested in 2008 that would have gone to waste otherwise.

Makes me think about the 2 apple trees, one pear tree and one (yummy) plum tree in my backyard. Every year we are begging friends and family to take a share of the harvest. I mean, how much more creative can one family get with canning, freezing and recipe-ing (is that a word?).

This group takes you from the fruit tree selection process to planting advice through proper pruning techniques and right around to harvesting the fruits of your labor.

Check them out.

Take a look at this cutting edge event in its third year for the Portland area, the Energy Trust Better Living Show. Though it seems to take on the same elements as a traditional “home show”, they are calling it a festival of sustainability that showcases earth friendly products for the home, garden and individual.

Here is a description provided from their website:

“The third annual Energy Trust Better Living Show is upon us. Free to the public, this fun and entertaining three-day festival is designed to empower attendees to become more thoughtful consumers and lessen their impact on the environment by learning about high-performance, earth-friendly products and services. This is one of the largest gatherings of sustainably-minded people nation-wide, with more than 20,000 attendees and 300 exhibiting companies last year.”

When: March 26-28

Where: Portland Expo Center (map it… or take light rail… it only makes sense)

Cost: FREE FREE FREE

There are numerous events and activities to entertain all ages – take a look at the full schedule for kids at PGE Planet Kids. Hope to see you there!

Photo Taken By Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian

We stumbled upon this article, Green Portland Apparently Isn’t Green Enough (author Janie Har), recently in the local newspaper, The Oregonian. This article can make a Portlandian take a second glance. It is difficult to process how our city, renamed the greenest city in America, could be ranked behind the likes of San Antonio, TX and Atlanta, GA for tree canopy coverage.

When have you heard someone comment on the beautiful trees and amazing green color of SAN ANTONIO?!? (a quick pause for thought… never).

Of course, the list goes on (and on and on) of why many choose to live in the Pacific Northwest and specifically Portland, Oregon. For those who have a true passion for mother earth, the environment, sustainability and trees, this city is our Mecca. How deflating it is not being the top city for tree canopy coverage. In being fair, our beloved city cannot be the best at everything green and natural; however, when we lose out to a city whose climate is described as Humid Subtropical on Wikipedia it makes one wonder if we are taking for granted our “green environment” when it comes to the natural elements within our urban boundaries.

It seems the City of Portland is on a similar thought process as there are several initiatives in the discussion and planning stages to help improve our canopy cover. Most of these efforts are coordinated through the CityWide Tree Project.

There are several other non-profit organizations throughout the Portland Metro area focusing on the need to improve the presence of trees, maintenance of existing trees and regulations for removal of trees.

So, what can we learn from the reality check of studies like these? It reminds us to GET INVOLVED. If you flaunt the beauty of our surroundings to those who do not live here and if you participate in enjoying our natural landscapes then you must become involved in efforts to preserve and improve the environment in which you live.

Plus… don’t forget the ever important fact of maintaining your trees. Regardless of the size and age of a tree, ongoing and regular maintenance is needed. Experts suggest regular pruning approximately every 2 years to promote overall health and integrity of a tree.