To my neighbors
I live on Ainsworth Street. This project started in the very beginning of covid, and my hope is that all of the people who have walked, run, biked, meandered up and down Ainsworth on their way to Fernhill, or with the hope of fresh air and sanity, relief from a pandemic and wildfires, are noticing the trees around them.
This is the transformative vision of this project — to take that noticing, and turn it into insight and connection with our tree neighbors growing around us.
To let them know that there is a context and a connection that a few people have carefully tended and planned for twenty years.
And that now, we can invite these neighbors and admirers and observers and stories to come together, here.
At the house, we started to put out passive signs of neighborliness: invitations to eat the plums and apples on our trees, a poetry post, a pink flamingo. Pretty soon I hope to put out a yard sign that shares this project, makes the website visible, and launches this whole heart effort forward.
So if you are a daily stroller of the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum, or a resident with a tree identification plate in front of your house and no idea what it means, or worried about a tree that needs extra care, or have a story about the trees and the median spaces, we invite you to engage.
Tell your own story. Post a yard sign. Carry this information to others. Mulch and water those trees! Tell us which mapped trees we mis-identified (there are probably a lot). Listen to the hilarious and worthwhile local Completely Arbortrary podcast. Read up on City of Portland’s Urban Forestry programs, sign up for Tree Bark and serve on the neighborhood Tree Team, to enjoy and care for trees outside of the Arboretum.
The noticing and learning and watching of the trees, season over season, has been gratifying for me. I hope it is to my neighbors, too.
