Celebrating Phyllis Reynolds

News Article

Phyllis Reynolds is a legend in the Heritage Tree world. Odds are any big tree enthusiast is likely to have a well-worn, dogeared copy of her book, Trees of Greater Portland,on their shelf- if you don't, go get a copy! First published in 1993, Reynold's historical survey of Portland trees set the standard for the city's flagship Heritage Tree Program, which began that same year. Phyllis didn't found the program, that was her friend Jane Glazer, but she was among the committee's first volunteer members and later served as committee chair (1999 - 2006), in addition to her service as an Urban Forestry Commissioner.

Dave Hedberg, of Outdoor History Consulting, recorded an oral history with Phyllis after presenting her with the Oregon Heritage Tree Program's2024 Maynard Drawson Award. The full interview and transcript, now accessible digitally at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center, covers the details and lived experience of Phyllis' work in tree preservation in Portland and may be of interest to others engaged in the history of tree preservation and planning.

Phyllis Reynolds, recipient of the 2024 Oregon Maynard Drawson Award April 9th, 2024. Photo by David Hedberg.

Born June 25, 1929, in Portland, Phyllis witnessed tremendous growth and change in the city. Her early years were spent on bike rides along the Oak Bluffs of North Portland. Later in her childhood, she moved to Arlington Heights and often frequented the new trails of Hoyt Arboretum on horseback. She recalls, "Sylvan used to have a riding Academy. And so, we'd get a horse and come up the hill, there were no houses over here. And it was just bridle paths… and go into the arboretum."

While it may seem hard to believe, Phyllis doesn't feel that her early days in Portland had much influence on her love of trees later in life. "I really was not into identifying, being interested in, exceedingly interested in trees until 1993," she notes. After a career in clinical psychology in Minneapolis, she and her husband returned to Portland in 1977 to be closer to family. Portland was undergoing major urban renewal projects and seeing some of its biggest trees fall to development. In the early 1990s a group of neighborhood activists, resisting the development and clearing of large trees, chained themselves to an Oregon white oak on Corbett Avenue in South Portland and were successful in saving it from the developer. It made headline news for months. Phyllis recalls this was the moment where she really became interested in big tree preservation:

"I was in the gardening club then and head of conservation. And they contacted me … And so, I went and looked at it and got in touch with Robbie Robinson, who was kind of like the city arborist ... and he gave me a list of trees that he had seen around the city that he thought were important trees … I took that list, and with a friend of mine who was also in the garden club... We drove around to look at these trees. And we discovered that many of them weren't there anymore. They had been removed. So, we thought, that's terrible … I said, let's write a book about important trees in Portland. And maybe if they were in a book, they would be saved. So that's what we did!"

In the process of writing Trees of Greater Portland, Phyllis came in contact with Jane Glazer, who was founding Portland's first Heritage Tree Program. Jane invited Phillis to join that same year. The committee got to work quickly and forwarded dozens of Heritage Trees to the Portland City Council every quarter in its first few years. Phyllis notes most nominations came from the community:

"Back in those days, it was our belief that to make heritage trees important … they should be nominated by community members who would then care about them. And so, we didn't go around finding trees at all. They got nominated readily. I think the more you get … your community members to be involved by nominating trees, the more helping. You know, it'll thrive, the community will thrive."

One of the powerful parts of oral histories is that they offer listeners a window into the personal past of the narrator. When asked about her favorite Portland Heritage Tree, quickly responded, "Oh, my favorite is the elm down by the YWCA because she's been there so long, and she came around South America to get here." Little did we know that only two months after this interview, that her favorite, Portland's Iconic Heritage Tree Number One (the Burrell elm), would suffer another major limb failure that necessitated its removal. And while it was sad on many levels to see Portland's first Heritage tree come to an end, Phyllis offered some perspective on over thirty years of work in Heritage Trees, "I have seen over the years, people become more involved about trees."

While we are losing many of our city's Heritage Trees, many people continue to nominate trees every year. The success of Portland's Heritage Tree Programis a testament to Phyllis's work publicizing the importance of trees, the many community member volunteers who founded and continue to help the Heritage Tree Committee, and the many individuals over the years who have nominated Heritage Trees.

If you would like to listen, or watch the full interview in its entirety, you can do so by accessing this link to the files at City of Portland Archives and Records Center.