Neighborhood Notes

A great chance to get involved in your neighborhood and help save a landmark.

From the Portland Tribune:

The stately elm trees that line the boulevards of the Ladd's Addition neighborhood in Southeast Portland are in danger. Dutch elm disease, which has devastated elms in the Midwest and Europe, has also reared its head in Portland, but help is on the way.

A small neighborhood group called Save Our Elms has been working for 11 years to protect Ladd's Addition's 100-year-old elms, which were planted when the development, laid out in unique pattern of traffic circles and diagonal streets, was first established.

It is now possible to inoculate trees against the disease, which is a fungus spread by beetles, but the inoculations are costly and must be repeated every three years. It costs about $12,000 a year to keep the Ladd's Addition trees in good shape, according to Toby Deming, a resident who coordinates annual volunteer days to inoculate the trees. Some of that money also goes to planting new trees.

Volunteers are needed for this year's event, on Saturday, June 28. No experience is necessary. A training session that morning will demonstrate the method for drilling small holes at the base of trees and inserting capsules, usually about 30 per tree, depending on size.

Read the full story.