Portland is losing large healthy trees to development and street “improvements.” It needn’t and shouldn’t. Here’s what to do about it.
In East Moreland neighborhood, residents organize to save three massive sequoia trees after a developer secured a permit to demolish the house, cut the trees down, and build a massive new home. These trees have stood in the neighborhood for 150 years and one measure 7.6’ in diameter.
In Cully neighborhood, neighbors push to save a large healthy Douglas fir put in the cross-hairs by half-street improvements required by the City. Inflexible street “improvement” standards that do not accommodate trees could mean this beautiful native tree will face the chain saw.
Near 122nd & Foster in East Portland, a stand of large healthy Douglas firs- including two trees over 40” in diameter- are approved for removal to make way for new senior housing, a parking lot, and the same half-street improvements that put large healthy trees in jeopardy.
What is happening here? Why are Portland’s largest trees suddenly facing the ax at almost every turn?
In 2007, neighborhood activists rallied across the City to reform Portland’s confusing and ineffective patchwork of policies and codes relating to trees. The result was a massive planning effort to assess and reform rules governing the removal of trees on private and public land and in the public right-of-way.
The upshot was a very beneficial consolidation of regulations in Title 11 of the City’s municipal code and programmatic funding to implement a combination of new incentives, education and regulations. By consolidating the tree code, applying them more consistently across the City, and establishing a new minimum tree density standard, Portland has put in place a framework for maintaining and hopefully expanding the urban forest canopy over time. With this aspiration in mind, the City Council adopted the tree reforms in 2010. Implementation was delayed due to funding shortfalls, but Portland’s new City-wide Tree Codes went into place January of this year.
So why, six months later, are scenes of large healthy trees being cut for new development becoming so common in Portland’s neighborhoods?
The answer is in part self-evident. When the City Council adopted the Citywide Tree Code in 2010, no one expected the return of white-hot housing market in Portland’s inner neighborhoods that is now fueling a construction boom so voracious that demolishing homes or clearing trees is a small cost of doing business. The care and hard work Portlanders have and continue to invest in making their communities livable have also made Portland a very lucrative place for developers and real estate investors.
But the reason for the recent rash of tree-cutting also has to do with the short-comings of the new tree code itself. While dramatically improving and clarifying City policies, targeted lobbying from real estate and industrial interests and even some City bureaus meant that the 2010 tree policy reforms fell short in at least five areas.
First, while claiming to be “Citywide,” the 2010 tree reforms actually continued to exempt most industrial lands from the improved tree preservation and planting standards.
Second, the Planning Commission and City Council dropped a set of proposals for graduated tree replanting standards and fees based tree size and species. In the name of “simplicity,” policy makers instead established a standard, across the board 2-for-1 replacement requirement for tree removal in private development situations. The 2-for-1 tree mitigation cap has meant that even a massive 7-foot sequoia redwood cut being cut for development would be replaced by only two saplings. Pending administrative rules would actually extend this 2-for-1 cap to removal of trees to public development projects and public right-of-way improvements.
Third, the new tree code reforms did not contain significant regulatory safeguards to protect Portland’s largest, healthiest trees. The tree density standard requires each development site to preserve or plant trees at a particular stocking level, but very little in the code actually prevents the largest, healthiest trees from being cut down in development situations.
Fourth, a lack of funding has hampered the implementation of new tree policies in Portland. The sheer volume of development permits involving tree removal has taxed the limited staffing with the expertise in tree preservation, protection and planting. It has also meant the City has had to skimp on the funding education and outreach necessary to help Portlanders understand tree policies and help steward the urban forest.
Finally, the 2010 tree reforms left much to be desired in terms of how street improvements preserve and foster the growth of large healthy trees. Development along unimproved streets usually triggers required upgrades to install curbs, sidewalks and sometimes bioswales. Developers must meet the Bureau of Transportation’s design standards. These standards rarely allow or require flexible designs to avoid tree removal or alternative surfacing to protect tree roots. Where new tree planting is required, street improvement standards often don’t provide enough soil volume to allow the growth of large healthy trees. The conflict between curbs, sidewalks and trees is particularly acute in East and Northeast Portland neighborhoods where there are many unimproved streets often flanked with large healthy trees.
So what is to be done? Fortunately, lots. The many efforts of neighbors to rally and organize to protect trees are already having an impact.
As result of the clear threat to large healthy trees from, Commissioner Fritz has asked a tree policy oversight committee to look at new measures to better protect and preserve large healthy trees. These recommendations could eventually find their way to the City Council.
Portlanders wanting to lend their voice will have an opportunity soon. The Urban Forestry Commission is hosting a special public hearing 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 1900 SW 4th Ave., Room 2500A. The goal is to give Portlanders an opportunity to express their desire to remedy the shortcomings of the City-Wide Tree Code. People who can’t make the Aug. 4 hearing may send written testimony to Mieke Keenan at mieke.keenan@portlandoregon.gov by Sept. 9, and cc: Commissioner Dan Saltzman at dan@portlandoregon.gov and Commissioner Amanda Fritz at amanda@portlandoregon.gov.
Policymakers or lobbyists who would block or obstruct tree policy reforms in Portland should take note. The concerns created by policies that allow the loss of large healthy trees in Portland’s neighborhoods will not likely go away.
Indeed, Portlanders’ visceral love for the trees that so define our City’s unique sense of place seems to be growing. If Portlander’s voices are heard, “urban living” will continue to mean having large, healthy trees in our urban midst.
Five simple policy improvements would protect large healthy trees in Portland.
- Establish specific tree preservation standards for large, healthy native trees, at least 35 inches in diameter.
- Increase requirements for tree replacement and fee in lieu of planting or preservation. Tree replacement should be graduated based on the size and species of trees removed in order to better compensate for the loss of the environmental functions they provide.
- Develop new street improvements standards that allow the retention of large, healthy trees. Establish a tree soil volume standard to ensure street trees in newly improved streets have room to grow.
- Actually apply new tree reforms citywide by requiring industrial development to meet tree density, preservation and planting requirements.
- Fully fund implementation of code enforcement and tree-related outreach and education programs.
