GLADSTONE, Ore. – Just in time for Oregon Arbor Month, the Oregon Department Forestry (ODF) is announcing that the city of Gladstone in Clackamas County has earned the Tree City USA designation. ODF administers the program for the national Arbor Day Foundation, based in Nebraska.
Gladstone joins 69 other communities in Oregon that hold the Tree City USA designation.
Brittany Oxford, ODF Urban and Community Assistance Forester, says to earn the designation, a city or town must meet four criteria:
- Maintain a tree board or department
- Have a community tree ordinance
- Spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry
- Celebrate Arbor Day each year
The Tree City USA program dates to 1976, when the first group of 42 cities in 16 states were named. Today, more than 3,500 communities across the country and located in every state and Puerto Rico hold the distinction.
With a little over 12,000 residents, Gladstone is situated where the Clackamas River flows into the Willamette. The town is noted for having 14 parks and trails within its four square miles. It is also one of three dozen Oregon communities with a Hiroshima peace tree, located in Gladstone Nature Park. The tree is a descendant of a ginkgo tree that survived the atom bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 near the end of World War II.
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