Urge City Council To Extend Protections For Portland’s Largest Trees

UPDATE: Passed Unanimously by City Council on 11/20/24, locking in protections for large trees in development protections for good!

On Wednesday, November 13, Portland City Council held a hearing to decide the fate of existing protections for large trees in development. They are due to sunset at the end of the year, and we need your support to keep them in place. 

The “Large Tree Amendment” is a crucial addition to Portland’s Tree Code (Title 11). When Portland first established its Tree Code in 2015, developers were charged a flat fee for tree removal, regardless of the tree’s size. In 2016, Bird Alliance of Oregon helped pass the “Large Tree Amendment,” which changed the policy to a per-inch mitigation fee, making larger trees more expensive to remove. This structure better reflected the lost ecosystem services, and helped reduce large tree removals by 68%. But the amendment is set to expire at the end of the year, meaning trees 20 inches DBH (diameter at breast height) or larger would soon lose this protection.

As Portland trends towards more extreme summer heat waves, worsening air quality, reduced wildlife habitat, and flooding from extreme weather events, urban trees provide the best tool to bolster both ecosystem and human health. We need your support to make sure the amendment stays in place.