Portland ranked as a top 10 city for urban forests
American Forests has named Portland one of its “10 Best U.S. Cities for Urban Forests" in part for turning a freeway into Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
The list also includes Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Sacramento, Seattle and Washington D.C.
The Best Cities project, funded by the U.S. Forest Service, affirms that long-term investments in urban ecosystems benefit the community.
Criteria include civic engagement in maintaining urban forests, integrating urban forests into infrastructure planning, accessibility to the public, overall health and condition of the urban forest, local knowledge about urban forests and ongoing management plans.
Portland was cited for efforts to turn a downtown parking lot into an urban park, the Tom McCall waterfront park project, the 5,000-plus acre Forest Park and other urban forest amenities.
According to American Forests, Portland’s street trees add $13 million to property resale values and the city’s urban forest provides more than $38 million in environmental benefits.
First, I like how it leaves out what place we got, second Tom McCall park was a reason? It's a muddy grass field that's not even useable for half the year, oh and it sits atop a giant concrete retaining wall........dumb.
 @Jeepers I clicked through (quite a few clicks to find) and it looks like they don't rank each city. They only are "in" or "not in" the top ten.
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If the seawall were not there, Waterfront Park would be extremely stupid. Why do you think it is stupid?
How can you be a city and a forrest?
@dkgiovenco Look to the west hills for the answer... Forest Park.
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Easy, gnomes, hobbits, and trolls live in forests don't they?
And not a single spotted owl in residence in these wonderful urban forests?
The Ocutards ate them all.
They wouldn't and couldn't do that! They are both a protected species....
"Portland was cited for efforts to turn a downtown parking lot into an urban park, the Tom McCall waterfront park project, the 5,000-plus acre Forest Park and other urban forest amenities."
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Pioneer Court Is ALL brick, Waterfront Park is typically a swamp for the fun center each year. Those are the top two reasons?
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Forest Park is the largest urban park of it's kind. That should be the reason Portland is on the "Best" Urban Forest list.
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I like the red dogwood in my yard even thogh it isn't green...