Portlander Receives Community Forestry Award

PORTLAND, OR — For more than 20 years, Mary Harrell has offered her assistance in educating thousands of Portlanders on the value and importance of the city's trees and environmental infrastructure. This week, Harrell's efforts were honored by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and the Oregon Community Trees nonprofit organization when they announced her as one of four recipients of the 2018 Oregon Urban and Community Forestry Award.

Manager of the Friends of Trees' Portland office, Harrell has been with the nonprofit since 1996, serving under every director the organization has seen, from founder Richard Siedman to current Executive Director Scott Fogarty.

“She supports the staff and volunteers to ensure they are able to plant tens of thousands of trees in Oregon and Washington each year,” ODF Urban and Community Assistance Forestry Program Manager Kristin Ramstad said in a statement. “She educates thousands of community members who walk through Friends of Trees’ door and inspires them to learn more about urban and community trees and to participate.”

The award is just a small acknowledgment for folks who make a big impact on the environment around them, performing "often unsung work" to improve local communities through community forestry efforts, according to ODF spokesman Jim Gersbach.

Nominated for her inspiring and important contributions, Harrell is described as "the glue that holds Friends of Trees together," according to Friends of Trees Deputy Director Whitney Dorer, who also said Harrell is the person to thank for "connecting generations of staff and volunteers to each other and to our neighbors and community."

"Her positive and calm attitude lifts us in the middle of our crazy planting seasons," Dorer wrote in her nomination. "If any one person is responsible for the 700,000 trees that FOT has planted, the thousands of volunteers each year, and the endless smiles, Mary is that person."

Along with Harrell, ODF and Oregon Community Trees officials also recognized Paul Hennon with City of Tualatin, Casey Roland of Casey P. Roland Tree Care in Ashland, and Plant Oregon, a nursery in southern Oregon, for their individual contributions.

Additionally, the state agency and nonprofit organization offered the President's Award to City of Corvallis Urban Forester Jon Pywell and named Lake Oswego "Oregon Tree City of the Year."

Image via Oregon Department of Forestry