April 2, 2025 11:00 a.m.

Governor Tina Kotek has proclaimed April 2025 to be Oregon Arbor Month throughout the state.

A release from the Oregon Department of Forestry said this year’s proclamation recognizes the importance to neighborhoods of urban trees as cities add housing and rapidly densify.

The proclamation states that “Trees play an integral role in fostering healthy communities” adding that urban development and the preservation of trees demands a careful balance.

Kotek said, “To protect Oregon’s natural and working lands in the face of worsening climate crisis, we must build a more resilient future that forges connection across our landscapes, for both rural and urban communities alike. Arbor Month is key to this goal, promoting the preservation and planting of trees across Oregon”.

The proclamation notes the loss of many trees in Oregon in recent years to wildfire, extreme heat and drought, development pressures and new tree-killing pests, such as emerald ash borer.

Oregon Arbor Month grew out of Arbor Day, a one-day tree-planting campaign in Nebraska in 1872. The event spread nationwide and expanded in many states to a week-long celebration of all things tree related. In Oregon, a few years ago the nonprofit Oregon Community Trees lobbied to expand the time devoted to celebrating trees to the entire month.