Jeff King is the kind of guy you’d want to have in charge if your street trees were being pruned by a group of neighborhood volunteers.
Calm, soft spoken, and knowledgeable, the 81-year-old retired energy policy expert has gone through training offered by Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) and its Urban Forestry program.
He leads his team of seven volunteers – each fall in Beaumont-Wilshire and each spring in the nearby Alameda neighborhood – in identifying appropriate street trees for pruning and shaping.
The goal is to do “structural pruning” that helps young trees achieve an ideal shape by removing competing “leaders” or main trunks, crossing branches, dead wood, and suckers, and providing proper street and sidewalk clearance, King explains.
Such specimens are typically at least three years old and need to have a trunk diameter of 6 inches or less at breast height to meet City of Portland requirements for the program. Bigger trees require permits filed by homeowners, who can do the work themselves or hire a professional tree service.
The pruning service offered by the Urban Forestry volunteers is free, although a permit is required.
Each campaign – spring or fall – starts with reconnaissance by King and his team to locate likely pruning candidates. Once identified, the team gets a signed permission form from the homeowner or leaves a door hanger explaining how to sign up with PP&R for a free permit.
This fall’s campaign in B-W included trimming about 27 trees. The team spent about eight hours on actual pruning, completing roughly three trees per hour. The team hopes to hold a meeting in January to plan for the future, attract new volunteers, and discuss possible moves into related activities, like organizing neighborhood tree walks or helping water street trees during hot Portland summers.
Limiting the group’s growth, King said, is that he’s currently the only team member who’s gone through the city’s training program, although other members “know the basics of good pruning.”
If the Alameda/B-W program is going to expand, he needs backup.
Prospective volunteers should contact Jeff King at JKingeca@gmail.com, or get more info from PP&R via UFvolunteers@portlandoregon.gov.
Chris Rauber and his wife, Kim Williams, moved to Portland and B-W in the summer of 2022 after many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He worked as a journalist at the S.F. Business Times and other publications. He was born in Oregon.