The handbook describes the role of street trees in managing stormwater and includes detailed color drawings of the trees that best perform this function in the Portland metropolitan area. Street trees provide many benefits including calming traffic, improving air quality and conserving energy. Trees for green streets explains how to use street trees as a stormwater management tool.

Street trees perform a variety of functions that help reduce the amount and rate of stormwater runoff entering the piped stormwater system. Trees absorb water through their leaves, branches and roots. Trees planted in biofiltration swales slow down water flow even more by allowing water to infiltrate into the soil. While all street trees perform these functions, particular species may perform them better than others depending on characteristics such as:

• persistent foliage
• canopy spread
• longevity
• growth rate
• drought tolerance
• tolerance to saturated soils
• resistance to urban pollutants (air and water)
• tolerance to poor soils
• root pattern
• bark texture
• foliage texture
• branching structure
• canopy density

Appropriate tree species are illustrated in the book, along with a description of major characteristics and advantages and disadvantages of each tree. The street tree guide focuses on the Portland, Ore. region, but tree suggestions apply to any West Coast temperate climate from Vancouver, B.C. to parts of Northern California.

External Links:

More Information: www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=26337
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