Find Stories

This tree is where the neighborhood cat lounges and it provides shade and cover from the rain for neighbors at the secret path between Elephants sell and 22nd place.

This tree is a weeping willow tree. Because of its central location and the fact that there are not any other trees around it, it served as a great meeting spot for me and my friends when we were teenagers. We would usually meet there as we were eith...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Cpo_4m_metzger_5 Author: Travis H.

---

This tree is a weeping willow tree. Because of its central location and the fact that there are not any other trees around it, it served as a great meeting spot for me and my friends when we were teenagers. We would usually meet there as we were either going to or coming from the Tualatin skatepark. It was also a great tree to relax under during the summer as it provided a lot of shade and relief from the sun.

This big Douglas fir has always been my favorite Portland tree, since I first measured it a decade ago, determining it to be the largest (and maybe the oldest) Douglas fir in the park, and one of the city's largest. It stands on a steep SW-facing slo...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Mt Tabor Author: Canopy S.

---

This big Douglas fir has always been my favorite Portland tree, since I first measured it a decade ago, determining it to be the largest (and maybe the oldest) Douglas fir in the park, and one of the city's largest. It stands on a steep SW-facing slope a short distance above a popular trail leading to the hill’s summit. At nearly 20 in circumference at ave. breast height, it used to be much taller than 152 feet, before ice storms broke its top. The tree’s age is estimated to be around 350 years, surviving wildfires, logging, and agricultural development, and numerous storms. I'm considering nominating it as a Portland Heritage Tree.

Darryl at the Mt. Tabor Fir, 2016. Tree I.D. #3326
-Darvel Lloyd, 9-10-2017

I always pat this tree as I run by. :)

I always pat this tree as I run by. :)

I sat with my back on this tree for a few minutes in the middle of a 10-mile run on a hot day. I appreciated its shade and the back support! :)

I enjoy walking and running under this tree and its smaller neighbors. They provide welcome shade on an otherwise sunny and exposed path.

This tree sits right outside my bedroom window. I love when the sun sets and the light glistens through the trees into my bedroom. A branch of this tree sticks out into the road a bit, and I carelessly knocked my passenger side mirror off. I blame my...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Buckman Author: Abigail R.

---

This tree sits right outside my bedroom window. I love when the sun sets and the light glistens through the trees into my bedroom. A branch of this tree sticks out into the road a bit, and I carelessly knocked my passenger side mirror off. I blame myself, not the tree, of course.

The copper beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea) tree in front of Portland State University Library was planted around 1890. This tree even has its own urban legend: PSU students tell a story that originally the tree was going to be removed for a libra...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Downtown Author: Joan P.

---

The copper beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea) tree in front of Portland State University Library was planted around 1890. This tree even has its own urban legend: PSU students tell a story that originally the tree was going to be removed for a library addition and students protested by chaining themselves to the tree. However, this never happened. The eastern addition of the library was always designed to surround, rather than replace, the copper beech. The copper beech tree was designated a Portland Heritage Tree by the Portland City Council in 1995.

I live in the woods of Copperfield Condominiums, near SE 138th and Clinton St. The 110 units were built about 1973 as well as many trees planted and they have grown well. Everywhere I walk, I am under a canopy of trees. It was the reason I bought a...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Powellhurst Gilbert East Author: Cynthia G.

---

I live in the woods of Copperfield Condominiums, near SE 138th and Clinton St. The 110 units were built about 1973 as well as many trees planted and they have grown well. Everywhere I walk, I am under a canopy of trees. It was the reason I bought a Condo here 15 years ago, canopies and open spaces.
Thank You
Cynthia Gage

This tree and its mates lining the east side of SW Broadway at Harrison were planted in the early 1980s with the completion of the first phase of the Professional Schools Building, now renovated as the Karl Miller Center. Their predecessors, shown in...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Downtown Author: Carolee H.

---

This tree and its mates lining the east side of SW Broadway at Harrison were planted in the early 1980s with the completion of the first phase of the Professional Schools Building, now renovated as the Karl Miller Center. Their predecessors, shown in 1956, were elms that were front yard trees for residences. The old elms outlived the houses behind them for almost twenty years, perhaps thanks in part to student activists who spoke out to save them from the same fate as the old buildings, but eventually fell to windstorms in the mid-1970s.

The roots of this and the two other cottonwoods were cut in 2015, about 5 feet away from the base of the trees. Glad they survived getting half of their root mass severed, afraid they'll fall, since there's nothing holding them up on their west side.

The property where this tree is located was owned by my family from the time it was built in the 1920s until my mother sold it in 1964. As a child, in the 1950s, I loved to play in the backyard under that tree, making mud pies and just digging. One...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: South Tabor Author: Vicki B.

---

The property where this tree is located was owned by my family from the time it was built in the 1920s until my mother sold it in 1964. As a child, in the 1950s, I loved to play in the backyard under that tree, making mud pies and just digging. One day I hit what I was sure was an orange-colored dinosaur bone. Turned out to be a root of this tree. I believe it was this tree (there were two) that lost its top in the Columbus Day Storm.

In the courtyard of Holladay Park Plaza, our retirement home, stands a magnificent London Plane Tree. It is over 100 years old, and first sat behind a beautiful old home on Wasco Street, which was removed to build our structure. We have always ca...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Sullivans Gulch Author: Jack M.

---

In the courtyard of Holladay Park Plaza, our retirement home, stands a magnificent London Plane Tree. It is over 100 years old, and first sat behind a beautiful old home on Wasco Street, which was removed to build our structure.
We have always called this tree “our sycamore”, and so as residents turn 100 years old here, we once a year present them with a framed certificate stating their name, date, and a beautiful pen and ink drawing of our tree.
Most other days we sit under it, knowing what a quiet presence it is in our lives, and how lucky we are to have it here.

This lovely tree has been the centerpiece of a view to the West Hills for decades. It has been a rookery for red tail hawks and peregrine falcons. It has sheltered deer and coyote, porcupine and other small animals. It has been viewed and hugged b...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Overlook Author: Stephen F.

---

This lovely tree has been the centerpiece of a view to the West Hills for decades. It has been a rookery for red tail hawks and peregrine falcons. It has sheltered deer and coyote, porcupine and other small animals. It has been viewed and hugged by generations of children who have hugged it and grown up in its shade. it is a landmark in North Portland and is loved by all of us.

Sitting here are two gorgeous cedars (Red or Western?). Planted in 1954 at the same time our house was built, these trees flank the south side providing cooling shade in the heat of summer. When the wind blows, the sound rushing through these trees i...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Woodstock Author: Kelly M.

---

Sitting here are two gorgeous cedars (Red or Western?). Planted in 1954 at the same time our house was built, these trees flank the south side providing cooling shade in the heat of summer. When the wind blows, the sound rushing through these trees is like music at once soothing and dramatic. We sit on our deck in our backyard watching all the squirrels scamper and the birds fly in and out of the strong branches. These trees are as much a part of our home as our roof and our walls.

This cedar (Western?) was planted in 1954 at the same time our house was built. Majestic and perfectly shaped, we always use it as the landmark to find our house. "Look for the really tall cedar tree just past the stop sign on SE Glenwood...." Home t...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Woodstock Author: Kelly M.

---

This cedar (Western?) was planted in 1954 at the same time our house was built. Majestic and perfectly shaped, we always use it as the landmark to find our house. "Look for the really tall cedar tree just past the stop sign on SE Glenwood...." Home to numerous birds, and squirrels, of course, our dog, Mandy, sits beneath it for hours at a time staring up at the critters scampering up and down its branches.

There are actually two trees here, in the grounds of what used to be Multnomah Grade School. I started at Multnomah in '52 (Kindergarten) and they were fully grown then. I remember sitting on the wall, under their shade, while waiting for the friends...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Multnomah Author: Sue B.

---

There are actually two trees here, in the grounds of what used to be Multnomah Grade School. I started at Multnomah in '52 (Kindergarten) and they were fully grown then. I remember sitting on the wall, under their shade, while waiting for the friends I would walk home with.

Located on SW 42nd between Carson and Hume Streets, this is one of two trees that are in the front yard of the house where a good friend lived, back in the 50s and 60s. There was a wooden beam nailed high up between them from which hung a long rope s...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Multnomah Author: Sue B.

---

Located on SW 42nd between Carson and Hume Streets, this is one of two trees that are in the front yard of the house where a good friend lived, back in the 50s and 60s. There was a wooden beam nailed high up between them from which hung a long rope swing, with a wooden seat. We used to love using that swing and where the dirt was scuffed into a smooth dip under the swing, this made a great place to play marbles!

This tree, near the corner of SW 41st and Carson St. was always there and always this tall, even back in the 1950s when we lived on Carson Street. It is outside the house where one of my best friends lived. When we were kids, we used to climb it and...

Read more...

Canopy Story

×

Location: Multnomah Author: Sue B.

---

This tree, near the corner of SW 41st and Carson St. was always there and always this tall, even back in the 1950s when we lived on Carson Street. It is outside the house where one of my best friends lived. When we were kids, we used to climb it and another kid in the neighborhood had Shetland ponies which we used to ride bareback, and they would always run under the low branches of this tree to try and knock us off!