Portland Water Bureau’s Proposed Rule Threatens Street Trees

A proposed Water Bureau rule would effectively eliminate thousands of existing or potential street-tree planting locations, according to Portland City Urban Forester Jenn Cairo, as reported by Bruce Nelson. Nelson is a member of the Urban Forestry Commission, which comprises citizens who advise Urban Forestry, a division of Portland Parks & Recreation. Cairo stated Urban Forestry’s opposition to the rule at the March 18, 2021 meeting of that commission.

The proposed administrative rule would forbid street trees to be planted closer than 10 feet from a water pipe that is 24 inches in diameter or greater. The standard has not been formally approved but appears already to have been applied since 2016 in certain places across the city, including to The Division Streetscape Project, where, says Cairo, 168 spaces for trees were lost.

Cairo said that her division, which has been in discussion with the Water Bureau about this standard since 2016, has found no evidence of tree root damage to water pipes that would support the 10-foot rule. Urban Forestry uses a different standard—5 feet from water pipes, not 10. So at present two City bureaus are applying different administrative standards to the same situation. This is a significant example of bureaus not being on the same page when it comes to trees.

The proposed rule will be examined as part of Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Streets 2035, according to project manager Matt Berkow. Streets 2035, wrote Berkow in an email to Trees for Life Oregon member Bruce Nelson, is “a complex project aiming to create a context-based framework for making decisions when there is not space to meet all applicable ROW [right-of-way] policies.”

Berkow goes on to write, “This issue of differing standards does not fit neatly into this framework, but the hope is that there are opportunities to make progress on this issue as part of these broader conversations around limited space in the right of way… When can/should another policy be flexible to support policies related to tree preservation or planting sites and when can/should tree policies be flexible to support other policy outcomes?”

The Urban Forestry Commission wrote to the Water Bureau and City Commissioners in January 2021 to express early concerns about the Water Bureau rule and to recommend specific, alternative approaches to accommodating both water pipes and street trees in the right-of-way.

Trees for Life Oregon believes the public is owed clarification about the status of and justification for this rule, which would eliminate so many of the street trees Portland sorely needs to combat heat-island effect at a time we’re facing increasingly hot summers.

Moreover, with less space required for private-property trees under new Residential Infill Project laws that become effective on August 1, retaining and planting large-form trees in the right-of-way will become even more vital to Portlanders’ health and well-being. In the context of the City’s climate and equity agenda, is it right to allow the Water Bureau to unilaterally wipe out thousands of spots for trees?

To comment on this proposed rule, please email:

City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, who oversees the Bureau of Environmental Services including the Water Bureau: mappsoffice@portlandoregon.gov

Gabriel Solmer, director of the Portland Water Bureau: Gabriel.Solmer@portlandoregon.gov

Matt Berkow, Portland Bureau of Transportation, Streets 2035 Project Manager: Streets2035@portlandoregon.gov

New mixed-use development at SE Division and SE 28th Ave. Photo credit: Doug Klotz