Portland State Magazine Winter 2016

winter 2016 pORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 17 shows a tree canopy cover of only 7 percent, compared with a citywide average of 21 percent. Traffic- related air quality is twice as bad as the city average, the urban heat island index is significantly higher and 64 percent of residents live below the poverty line compared with 14 percent for the city as a whole. Sweep the mouse over to the Dunthorpe neighborhood in Southwest Portland and the app shows conditions change dramatically. The air is sweeter, the traffic-related air pollution is about half the city average, the urban heat island index is near zero and only one percent of its residents live in poverty. And it has more than three times the tree cover as the Portland average. On the map Dunthorpe shows up as a bright green island. So what would it take to make the Gateway neighborhood as green as Dunthorpe? Planting more than 4,800 medium-sized trees, according to the app. “That’s a small forest,” says Shandas, adding that if Gateway residents wanted to take a less daunting approach, they can inventory the area’s available public spaces and look for ways to reach some portion of the tree canopy target, even if it’s as low as 10 to 20 percent. Then they could do the same for private spaces. Once there’s a target in place, he says there is a wealth of organizations—including East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods, Portland’s Community Watershed Stewardship Program—to help provide the money, technical guidance and labor to make it happen. “Based on the specifics of the neighborhood, the targets can be reached with sustained and committed effort, which is usually the way anything good happens,” Shandas says.  John Kirkland is a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications. The tree cover, heat island and poverty levels of the Dunthorpe (left) and Gateway (above) neighborhoods vary greatly according to the interactive maps found on map.treesandhealth.org