Here's what's new
The latest news and education information from OCT
- 2025 urban forestry conference receives high marks from attendees
- Hiroshima peace tree documentary nears completion
- Sixteen speakers and panelists announced for May 15, 2025 urban forestry conference
- Five Oregon cities get grants from OCT to boost their Arbor Month activities
- OCT names a new president
Documentary about Hiroshima peace trees in Oregon is nearing completion
Portland filmmaker David Hedberg is making a documentary capturing the effort that led to four dozen Hiroshima peace trees being planted in Oregon. He intends to show the trees' meaning, the homes they've found around the state, and the people whose lives they've touched.
Sixteen speakers and panelists presented at the 2025 Oregon Urban Forestry Conference in Eugene
A diverse group of 16 presenters and panelist educated and engaged attendees at the 2025 Oregon Urban Forestry Conference in Eugene on May 15. After a warm welcome to Eugene by Mayor Kaarin Knudson, who spoke of her own recent treeplanting experience, keynote speaker Dr. Christine Carmichael outlined historic inequities in urban forestry and the lessonsfor organizations trying to rectify past inequaity in tree canopy in disadvantaged communities.
Attendees heard from a panel on respectful, history-informed Tribal engagement .Conference co-sponsors OUR Community Forestry and Portland Urban Forestry also gave presentations. OUR Community Forestry described how they are helping southern Oregon recover from the devastating Almeda Fire of 2020. Portland Urban Forestry detailed a pilot program to create space for trees in the curb zone in low-canopy neighborhoods, as well as free yard tree giveaways and programs to increase participation by BIPOC, women-owned and veteran-owned contractors. There were also presentations by panels on workforce development to help diversify those entering urban forestry occupations, and a panel on how to foster community collaboration. A Friends of Trees presenter also addressed how care can be woven into processes that often feel rigid, extractive or overly transactional.
OCT's 2025 Grant Awardees
Five cities across Oregon recieved grant awards from OCT. to help boost their Oregon Arbor Month activities. Read more about the 2025 recipients.
OCT elects a new president
Longtime OCT board member Jim Gersbach of Portland was elected president of Oregon Community Trees at the boards March 7, 2025 meeting in Salem. Gersbach, who was born in Oregon, was nominated by outgoing president Tyler Roth. He is the founder of the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum in Portland, a senior planting and pruning crew leader with Friends of Trees, a founding member of Trees for Life Oregon, and an occasional guide at Hoyt Arboretum. He most recently helped a collection of trees at the former Meek Elementary School in Portland win official recognition as a Level 1 Arboretum.
EUGENE, Ore. – Sixteen different speakers and panelists arenow confirmed for Oregon’s Urban and Community Forestry Conference on May 15 in Eugene. The conference’s theme is Growing Together: Collaboration and Diverse Voices in Urban Forestry.Keynote speaker is Christine Carmichael, PhD, founder ofFair Forest Consulting, LLC, of Lansing, Michigan, who will address historic,
current and future trends regarding diversity in urban forestry.The conference is put on by the non-profit organizationOregon Community Trees in partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry
and USDA Forest Service. Co-presenting sponsors are OUR Community Forestry and
Portland Urban Forestry. The one-day conference will be held again this year downtown at Venue 252.Also scheduled to speak are:
- Mike Oxendine, founder of OUR Community Forestry based in Talent, Ore. He’ll describe the strategies propelling the organization to rapid, sustainable growth and the programs making an impact in southern Oregon.
- Jacklyn Lim and Frankie Thompson with Portland Urban Forestry. They’ll explain how Portland leverages COBID-certified contractors to expand the city’s tree canopy in low-income, low-canopy neighborhoods.
- Gena Gastaldi of Portland Bureau of Transportation will talk about how the bureau is working with Portland Urban Forestry to pilot planting street trees in the parking zone of a low-canopy, low-income neighborhood.
- Brittany Oxford and Hilary Olivos-Rood from the Oregon Department of Forestry will share their agency’s experiences building relationships with Oregon Tribal communities, including successes, limitations, and opportunities for growth. They will be joined by Brook Colley, an Associate Professor and Chair of the Native American Studies program at Southern Oregon University, and Amanda Craig, who worked most recently as Oregon Project Manager for the Trust for Public Lands‘ Oregon Rural Schoolyards Program. Colley is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. Craid is a citizen of The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. They will share their perspectives on what works and doesn’t work when attempting to build more respectful, mutually beneficial relationships with Native communities
- sunny god with Friends of Trees will talk about designing complex organizational and program (eco)systems with care.
There will also be three panelists sharing experiences andideas for how to recruit people currently under-represented in urban forestry
and arboriculture into the profession and help them to flourish within it.Three other panelists will discuss collaborating withdiverse communities to extend the many benefits of shade-tree canopy more
widely and in a more equitable manner.Continuing education credits are available for conference attendees, including from the International Society of Arboriculture.
Registration is $180 ($170 if the person registering livesor works in a Tree City USA community). Students can register for $80. Last day
to register is Friday, May 9. Price includes a boxed lunch and a social hour
beverage and snacks following the conference. To register, go to GrowingTogether: Collaboration and Diverse Voices in Urban ForestryAbout Oregon Community Trees
The mission of this non-profit, Oregon-based organizationis to promote healthy urban and community forests through leadership,
education, awareness and advocacy. OCT serves as the advisory committee to the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program.## #
Portland Filmmaker Documents Peace Tree Journey
April 30, 2025
Oregon Community Trees has been supporting Portland filmmaker David Hedberg to make a documentary about the effort to plant peace trees in Oregon and the impact that has had on communities across the state. The trees were grown from seeds collected from trees in Hiroshima that survived the atom bombing of that city in 1945. Volunteers with Green Legacy Hiroshima collect the seeds and distribute them worldwide as ambassadors of peace and reconciliation.
Between late 2019 and spring 2024 about four dozen Hiroshima peace trees were planted across Oregon, from the coast to the Wallowas, and from the Columbia Gorge to the California border. The trees were welcomed at schools, universities, churches, parks, arboreta, cemeteries, and even the Oregon State Prison. Hedberg captured many of the plantings and dedications as part of a documentary he planned about the project called "Seeds of Peace."
Hedberg traveled to Hiroshima in November 2023 to give Japanese audiences a preview of the unfinished documentary. While there he was able to come face to face with the mother trees of the Oregon seedlings.
Filming is now complete and in the editing stages. Hedberg says he plans to screen the completed documentary in film festivals in fall 2025, and then show it in many of the three dozen Oregon cities and towns that have planted peace trees. Look for screening dates to be announced late this year.
Find additional details on Hedberg and the project here.
