‘Treebates’ might help city stormwater programs branch out

UPDATE • City Council unanimously adopts initiative that encourages property owners to plant thousands of new trees

By Kevin Harden

The Portland Tribune, Nov 3, 2009, Updated Nov 6, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

Tribune file photo

Large trees, like these in Mt. Tabor Park, help absorb hundreds of gallons of rainfall each year. The city Bureau of Environmental Services hopes to begin a new treebate program to encourage property owners to plant more trees to suck up stormwater runoff.

A rebate to plant trees? That’s the city of Portland’s plan to expand its year-old Grey-to-Green environmental intitative.

It’s part of the Bureau of Environmental Services’ new “treebate” program to encourage property owners to plant more trees. Why? Because mature trees help suck up hundreds of gallons of rainwater every year, reducing the amount that flows into storm drains and, eventually, into local rivers and streams.

“It’s all part of the effort to treat stormwater where it falls,” said Jennifer Karps, Grey-to-Green canopy coordinator for the Bureau of Environmental Services, who is in charge of the new treebate program. “It also benefits the watershed health and habitat around the city.”

Portland’s City Council approved the plan by a 4-0 vote Wednesday morning, Nov. 4. Mayor Sam Adams missed Wednesday’s meeting because he was on a trade mission to Japan.

The ordinance implementing the program calls for the bureau to spend about $1.1 million through 2013 on the rebates for property owners who plant new trees. It goes into effect immediately, giving the bureau and the Grey-to-Green program a chance to gear up for the traditional planting season between Sept. 1 and April 30.

During City Council testimony on the ordinance, local architect Brian Symes, who volunteers with Friends of Trees, broke out his made-in-Oregon Spruce House ukelele to sing a song honoring the proposed program.

“Green over gray, we will succeed when we plant the trees,” Symes warbled as the four commissioners listened politely. “Paradise not lost, but gained, when we plant the trees, we friends of trees.”

Symes said after the meeting that his song was a spur-of-the-moment performance. It was composed for his Friends of the Trees work, not for the City Council. Symes said he was about two blocks from City Hall at an eco-roof seminar and decided to drop in and “testify” with the ukelele.

“I thought it would be a quick little trip to sing the song and brighten everybody’s day,” Symes said.

Some are already interested

Here’s how the program will work: A homeowner decides to buy and plant a new tree on his or her property (not in the public rights of way) and then applies to the bureau for a rebate. The city will provide a “treebate” of up to 50 percent of the cost of most trees, with a maximum of $50 per native species tree, and $40 for non-native species.

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