With a background of bicyclists headed to the second weekend of Saturday market, and a bit of Saturday morning traffic, a crowd gathered on the corner of 13th and Olive to participate in the Eugene, OR, Arbor Day celebration.

Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Oregon State Forester Marvin Brown get help from Boyscout Pack 26 while planting the first tree in the 2009 city Arbor Day celebration and Eugene Tree Foundation Concrete for Trees project.
Photo by Leah Rosin

Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy gave a talk in which she shared some of the findings of a Center for Urban Forest Research study. These include

• In a cost-benefit analysis, trees provide $2.71 for every $1.00 spent.
• Shoppers are willing to pay more for parking in areas with trees, and up to 12% more at retail stores in areas with trees.
• Homebuyers are willing to pay 3-7% more for houses with trees.
• Areas with trees have lower rates of crime and domestic violence.
• 10,000 trees within a city can store 10 million gallons of water, reducing flooding, runoff, and erosion.
• Well-placed trees by homes and buildings can reduce home cooling costs by 40%.
• 30 trees can remove up to 120 tons of carbon from the environment within their lifespan.

Oregon State Forester Marvin Brown made the journey to Eugene from Salem to participate in the event. Because this is Oregon’s 150th birthday (Sesquicentennial), the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) is sponsoring 150 tree planting events around the state. Brown shared that Eugene is one of 51 cities in Oregon that have earned the moniker “Tree City USA,”, and the second city in the state to receive that designation (following Portland). This year, three more cities in Oregon were recognized with that honor: Dallas, Lincoln City, and Gresham.

The site at 13th and Olive was selected through cooperation with the building tenants, Balhizer and Hubbard Engineers. The site was formerly occupied by the City of Eugene Public Library, and therefore had been built with extra wide sidewalks to accommodate the visitors. The City public works department removed 50 tons of concrete in preparation for the tree planting at the site, and an in-ground irrigation system was installed in preparation for the new trees.

The Eugene Tree Foundation’s volunteers worked with the city to prepare the site and had many of organization members in attendance. REI sponsored the event, providing T-Shirts for volunteers as well as 15% off coupons for attendees. And because Eugenians can’t get enough trees, another 30 trees were planted by a neighborhood association elsewhere in the city.

More information about trees:
Arbor Day Foundation’s online educational games and activities