Launching - Volunteer Tree Care Team!
Volunteer Pruning Lead
Tree folks of Portland!
We are so excited to launch our Volunteer Pruning Lead program. If you have experience pruning trees and want to deepen your knowledge of fruit tree pruning specifically and contribute to improving the free local fruit in your city; this volunteer role is for you! It will provide the opportunity to deepen your relationship with your neighbors, sharpen a fun rewarding skill and help our organization work towards the goal of mitigating fruit tree waste while increasing folks' access to fresh nutritious fruits. You will also be helping us reach our goal of providing free tree care to folks who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford paid services!
Tree Care Team out on a job!
Here is what you should expect
Intitial Quiz
This will be a quick quiz on the basics of fruit tree pruning. This is simply to gauge where our volunteer’s knowledge stands!
Training
We will provide training. It is really important to us that we do more good than harm and proper fruit tree pruning goes such a long way in increasing the quality and health of our local fruit trees.
Assessment
We want to make sure that we’re all on the same page once we head out into the city and up into the canopy. You will be leading at least one other person, so we want to make sure you feel confident and prepared. The test will consist of you pruning a fruit tree and a member of our tree care team cheering you on as you make clean, correct cuts that shape the tree beautifully.
Tools and Gear
We will provide you with a pair of long/short loppers and a saw. We also have plenty of gloves, sanitizer and safety glasses. You are more than welcome to bring your own tools, just make sure they are sharp!
Hours
We ask that you commit to 12 hours a year of active pruning which ends up being two volunteer shifts during the summer pruning season from July-September and two during the winter pruning season from December to Early March.
Connecting Canopies Intern practicing their new pruning skills!
As you can probably tell, we care deeply about providing quality tree care for the health/longevity of the tree and the benefit of the community we serve. We are so excited to provide free tree care to folks and hope you feel inspired to join us!
Take the next step with Portland Fruit Tree Project!
Email Owen at portlandfruit.org to share your interest and we’ll get started!
Initial training dates are:
Saturday, .August 2nd from 10am-2pm at the Parkrose Community Orchard
Saturday, August 9th from 10am-2pm at the Fruits of Diversity Orchard