Take Action
Please email Portland City Council and urge them to adopt Exhibit B in the proposed amendments that includes removing the exemption for tree protections on Heavy Industrial lands:
- Submit written testimony to the City Council Clerk; cctestimony@portlandoregon.gov or through the City’s MapApp
- Sign up to testify by 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27 to testify at the hearing on Oct. 29.
Talking points
- Let Council know that you strongly support the amendments which would require inch for inch mitigation for trees over 20 inches and removal of exemptions for tree protections on General Industrial (IH(, Central Employment (EX), and Central Commercial (CX) zones.
- Urge Council to Adopt the Tree Ordinance with Exhibit B to which also includes removal of the exemption for protecting trees on heavy industrial lands.
- Heavy industrial areas overlap with some of our most important natural resource areas such as the banks of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and Columbia Slough.
- Heavy industrial areas have some of the highest urban heat island effects in Portland. Trees are essential to reducing urban heat island for workers and adjacent communities.
- Heavy industrial areas have some of the worst air pollution, Trees are vital to protect air quality.
- Heavy industrial areas are directly adjacent to neighborhoods which are often more diverse and lower income. Trees are vital to protecting neighborhoods and vulnerable populations
- Applying tree protections on heavy industrial lands would not reduce the industrial land base. Property owners have a choice of either retaining trees or paying into a mitigation fund when trees are not preserved.
- It is long past time for heavy industrial land developers to be required to do their part to protect trees.
Thank you for advocating for Portland’s tree canopy and the environmental and community benefits it provides.
