Barbara Wharton, Concordia Resident and Portland Neighborhood Tree Steward, has been an active participant in Urban Forestry initiatives since moving to Portland in 2008. A founding member of Concordia’s Tree Team, she was a leader in the first Portland Street Tree Inventory, in planning the International Grove planted at N.E. 42nd Ave near Lombard, and in the ongoing care of the Learning Landscape grove at Meek High School. Barbara also served for several years on the Urban Forestry Commission’s Education and Outreach Committee.
Bruce Nelson, a certified arborist as well as a tree advocate, worked for a tree-care company for 12 years; taught for 18 years at Clackamas Community College, where he helped start its arboriculture program; and for two decades has volunteered for a variety of tree-related activities in Portland.
Catherine Mushel has been working to protect Portland’s urban forest for two decades. She previously chaired the Eastmoreland Tree Committee, where she focused on planting, tree care, inventories, and street tree succession planning. She has also served as a neighborhood coordinator and planting crew leader for Friends of Trees. As an Urban Forestry Commissioner for eight years and chair of its Education and Outreach Committee for seven, she helped to celebrate trees and their stories, build institutional alliances, and elevate education and outreach within the city’s Urban Forestry division.
Jim Gersbach, a Concordia resident and neighborhood tree steward, has been supporting Oregon's urban forests for three decades. A long-time Concordia Tree Team member and volunteer with Friends of Trees, he is a senior planting crew leader in its neighborhood program and a senior pruning crew leader. Founder of the Linear Arboretum along N.E. Ainsworth, he leads tree walks there to help others learn about the importance of tree diversity, and helps establish trees by watering over the summer.
Kyna Rubin, a writer and naturalist, leads tours as a nature educator at Hoyt Arboretum. She founded the Irvington Tree Team, was a Friends of Trees’ Irvington Neighborhood Coordinator, and was a wildlife solutions counselor and a school kids’ tour leader at the Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Audubon) sanctuary. She also was a volunteer team leader for Portland’s multi-year tree inventories, completed in 2019. Kyna has spent years as a writer and editor for nonprofits and as a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines including Landscape Architecture Magazine.
Roberta Jortner is a technical advisor for Trees for Life Oregon. She brings 35 years of experience in natural resource and land use policy, planning, and project management. She has worked for the City of Portland on a wide range of projects including policies affecting green infrastructure, climate change, equity, and environmental justice. Roberta was project manager for the project that generated Portland’s first comprehensive tree code. She has served on the Urban Forestry Commission and its Policy Committee, and currently serves on Bird Alliance of Oregon’s Conservation Committee and Board.