By Garret Hartung Wilkes East Meteorologist

The Pacific Northwest had a rather mild start to the summer of 2024. The month of June ended up a whopping 2.7°F below average with precipitation also coming in slightly below average. This is a stark contrast from the last three June’s which all featured above average temperatures. The slightly cooler temperatures we saw in June were in part due to persistent upper level troughing in the Gulf of Alaska, an area of cooler air aloft that maintains onshore flow and often steers frontal systems through the Pacific Northwest. This is a pattern we often see in the wintertime, hence why this June was dubbed “Junuary” by many local meteorologists.

A common adage around the Pacific Northwest is that summer does not start until July 5th. According to that, summer was right on time this year as a potent upper-level ridge developed across the Western US around July 4th, allowing for many locations to see their first 100°F readings of the year. This early July heatwave did not match the magnitude of the great June heat dome of 2021 as temperatures peaked at only 104°F at PDX. However, this heatwave was historic in terms of duration with five consecutive days of temperatures reaching or exceeding 99°F, which ties the record set back in August of 1981 and July of 1941.

Warm and dry conditions have continued through the first half of July with high temperatures so far averaging 11°F above the average of 80°F for the month of July. The persistent hot and dry conditions have quickly dried out the vegetation across the state, allowing for wildfire season to come roaring back to life, especially east of the Cascades. So far this year over 300,000 acres have burned in Oregon, already surpassing the roughly 260,000 acres that burned in all of 2023. Most of the fires so far have been human caused. On July 16th/17th, a system moving up the Oregon coast triggered many thunderstorms across the central portions of the state, likely starting dozens of new fires. So unfortunately, the acreage burned will continue to increase as we head deeper into the driest period of the year.

There will likely be a period or two where smoke makes its way west of the Cascades during the later part of the summer, especially if we get an offshore/easterly flow event. Smoke is a regular and natural occurrence for the Pacific Northwest, but it can be hazardous at times, especially for more vulnerable population groups. Having new filters in HVAC systems and running air purifiers can help to limit smoke particles inside of the home. N-95 mask can also be helpful when venturing outside should air quality becomes hazardous from smoke. It is also important to be extremely careful in our wildland areas for the rest of the summer as even the smallest spark can start large and dangerous fires.

By Janet Unruh, Wilkes East neighbor

For nature lovers who hate to see the land scraped bare for housing developments, our best hope is that soon, it will no longer be profitable for developers to build new housing. This is our best hope because the city turns a deaf ear to the pleas of residents to stop, or at least reduce the size of new developments.

(If you don't see the full article below, Click "Here")

By Greg Hartung
Land Use Co-Chair

Hello members of our Wilkes East Neighborhood Association.
The Wilkes East Neighborhood Association board regularly receives land use plans from the City of Gresham to notify us of land use projects within or proximity to the Wilkes East neighborhood boundaries.

Pre-Application PRE 23-00498: Early Neighborhood Notification of 2751 NE 181st Avenue & 2777-2789 NE 181st Avenue, Gresham, Oregon 97230. The owner is proposing to develop two (2) parcels with a new 7-Eleven 4-pump commercial truck commercial fueling station with a 30-foot by 68-foot canopy (approximately 18 feet tall).  Also included is a small, 13'x11'/135 square foot compressor shed. A pedestrian pathway is proposed from the new fueling island to the existing 7-Eleven store.  Access to the site will be via the existing driveway off NE 181st Avenue which will be widened to the south to accommodate larger trucks.  The northern approach will also be widened to allow for larger turning movements.

An exit-only will be constructed providing access for fueled trucks direct access onto NE 181st Avenue southbound (which has already been discussed and approved by City of Gresham transportation staff). The two existing lots may also be combined. An Early Neighborhood Notification meeting will be tentatively scheduled for the week of July 29, 2024.

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Design review DR-23-00600, Location 17311 NE Halsey St, Portland Or 97230, proposal: Retroactive review of previous tree removal and approximately 25,000 square feet of outdoor storage area and conversion of parking to outdoor storage, plus new outdoor storage are of approximately 38,000 square feet. Applicant proposed a minor variance to exceed the maximum standard for outdoor storage by 20%. The proposed includes past and future removal of 111 regulated trees.
Wilkes East Neighborhood Association submitted public comments regarding the tree removal. They acknowledged the need for some tree removal to allow for business expansion but described the requested amount of tree removal as “excessive.” They described several benefits which mature trees provide to the urban landscape and noted their importance as a fixture of the Wilkes East Neighborhood.
Staff response Staff agree with the many benefits provided by mature trees as described by the Neighborhood Association. Preservation of mature trees is a goal of the City of Gresham. The City is presently revising the Tree Regulations in the Community Development Code to better reflect community values. While the tree removal associated with this application is significant, the applicant proposes to retain and protect 142 mature trees on site. The applicant does not propose removing more than the necessary number of trees to accommodate the proposed expansion of their outdoor storage area.

Staff find that reasonable efforts have been made to retain mature trees where possible and that the applicant’s proposal meets the standards for Type II Tree Removal in Section 9.1000 All documents are also available online [link: https://greshamor-energovweb.tylerhost.net/apps/SelfService#/home]. If you have any questions about the decision, please contact Emily Langston at Emily.Langston@GreshamOregon.gov.

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Permit number BLDC-21-05690 Taco Bell New Build 181St. Location 2309 NE 181st Ave, Gresham, Or 97230. Land clearing and construction is underway for a new Taco Bell with drive through. The developer had disputed the Pedestrian ADA access ramp to 181st citing that the property does not have 181st frontage and pedestrian traffic is negligible.

Landscaping requirement exceptions for 6 new trees that conflicted with overhead utilities was considered in lieu of a Tree Fund Contribution of $600 per tree. ODOT would not allow trees to be planted on the adjacent ODOT owned property.

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For these and other public records, you can visit the City of Gresham, OR
website: https://greshamor-energovweb.tylerhost.net. You do not need to create or register an account with online services to access project files.

To search for project files and public records: Click on the search icon.
In the screen that loads, type in the Plan case number in the search field and click on the search button. The page will reload with the results of the search, including highlighted direct links to cases. Click on the highlighted link for the Plan case. In the page that loads, click on the Attachments tab to view project files.

You can also view detailed instructions on how to search for public records at: https://greshamoregon.gov/workarea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=13448M.

If you have any questions about accessing the files online or any projects, please contact PlanningTech@GreshamOregon.gov

Spring 2024 Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Spring 2024 Newsletter Inside This Issue: Outdoor School for 6th Grade Students Wilkes East Land Use Update Rockwood Greenspace Now Try The MyGresham App Street Sweeping, 4th Wed, Mar-Nov

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

¡Descargue nuestro boletín en español aquí!. (incluye enlaces web activos)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our general meetings.

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Fall 2023 Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

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Fall 2023 Newsletter Inside This Issue: WENA Board Election November 13th Aging Levees, Will They Protect Us Wilkes East Land Use Update Climate Action Meeting, All Things Trees How We Saved the CCACs

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

¡Descargue nuestro boletín en español aquí!. (incluye enlaces web activos)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our general meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

City of Gresham, Climate Action Meeting, “All Things Trees”

By Janet Unruh, Wilkes East neighbor

The third Climate Action meeting was held September 28, 2023 in the City Council chamber. 30-40 people attended in person.

Presenters

• Shannon Martin, Solid Waste and Sustainability Manager
• Johnny Dea, Climate Action Plan Project Manager
• Tina Núñez-Osterink, Natural Resources and Parks Planner
• Mary Phillips, Senior City Planner at City of Gresham, working on tree code
• Sarale Hickson, Urban Planner at City of Gresham, working on updating regulations related to waterways, floodplains, wetlands, and steeply sloped areas
• John Wasiutynski, Director of the Office of Sustainability, Multnomah County
• Dr. Vivek Shandas, renowned climate researcher and professor at Portland State University

Good news – Gresham is getting money for Urban Forestry

The USDA Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program awarded over $1 billion to fund urban forestry projects across the U.S. that “support equitable access to trees and the benefits they provide.” “Equitable access” refers to low-income neighborhoods that are deficient in tree canopy. The funding was made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Locally, a coalition led by Friends of Trees, including the City of Gresham, and others applied for funding. The coalition received a $12 million grant to be used over next five years to work with neighborhoods to plant and care for trees.
  The IRA urban forestry projects include:

• Community tree planting (training and engaging volunteers) to plant up to 2,300 street and yard trees and 21,000 native shrubs in neighborhoods and natural areas, specifically in identified equity areas: East Multnomah County, West Eugene, and Springfield
• Robust post-planting care, including watering, mulching, and natural area maintenance
• Opportunities for direct community input and participation
• Community education
• Workforce training

Tina will be meeting with coalition members to find out how much of the funding Gresham will receive.

Green Gresham, Healthy Gresham

Green Gresham, Healthy Gresham (GGHG) will help identify where to plant trees, taking into consideration the demographics behind the lack of trees. Tina and John Wasiutynski began GGHG about six years ago with the goal of planting more trees to make Gresham a lusher, greener place for all who live in Gresham. Thanks to grants they have received along the way, they have been able to plant over 500 trees, take an inventory of street trees, maintain tree canopy, and recruit homeowners to plant trees. The IRA grant is much larger than the earlier grants and it will provide much more funding for tree planting and care. And there’s more good news: in addition to the IRA grant, Tina, John, and GGHG expect to receive grant money from FEMA for post-disaster response due to the heat dome event in June 2021. In that event 69 people died in Multnomah County.
See also: Green Gresham, Healthy Gresham' Grant Project Adding Street Trees to West Gresham Neighborhoods, the Wilkes East Neighborhood Newsletter http://www.wilkeseastna.org/node/3542

How trees help with hotter, drier temperatures

Trees help cool the environment. They are a simple and effective way to reduce urban heat islands. Trees and other vegetation such as bushes, shrubs, and tall grasses provide shade and cooling through evaporation and transpiration. They absorb water through their roots and cool surroundings by releasing water vapor into the air through their leaves. Trees and vegetation are most useful as a mitigation strategy when planted in strategic locations around buildings and in parking lots and streets. https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands
Note: Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. https://www.weather.gov/oax/heatsafety
Where Gresham is hottest
Heat-related deaths are associated with tree-deficit areas. When trees have been cut down in a neighborhood, heat-related deaths rise (quoting Dr. Shandras).
Rockwood is the hottest census block in Gresham. Rockwood has a deficit of trees because of large parking lots and rooftops in the industrial areas and because of wide roads. The heat island in Rockwood centers around the former Sunrise Center and Kitchen (see map, below).

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Heat islands are usually associated with industrial areas or big-box stores with their acres-wide roofs and enormous parking lots. But in the case of Rockwood, the heat island is next to residential areas where people walk to Max, catch a bus, go to a grocery store, or walk to their apartment. In the summer, this creates a health hazard for anyone transiting through, shopping, or living in this area.

How We Saved The CCACs

By Janet Unruh, Wilkes East neighbor

Council Citizen Advisory Committees (CCACs) play an important role in decisions that affect Gresham. These committees are made up of resident experts, interested community members, and a staff liaison to City government. According to the City of Gresham’s website, “City Council appoints residents to committees and boards to advise the Council on certain decisions and policy matters. Citizen advisory committee work stems from the City's Strategic Plan.” The CCACs include the following:

• Charter Review Committee (work completed)
• Community Development and Housing Subcommittee
• Community Enhancement Advisory Committee
• Design Commission
• Finance Committee
• Gresham Redevelopment Commission Advisory Committee
• Historic Resources Subcommittee
• Parks and Recreation Community Advisory Group
• Planning Commission
• Transportation Advisory Subcommittee
• Urban Forestry Subcommittee (UFS)
• Youth Advisory Council

My interest was in the Urban Forestry Subcommittee (UFS) because they are the stewards of the trees in Gresham. And so, it was stunning when in January 2023, City staffers met with all the CCACs including UFS, and asked us all to stop meeting for two to three months while the City restructured.

In the UFS meeting, they delivered that message and gave us no definite timeline for resumption or for interim communication.  I felt that they were stonewalling the subcommittee, and when members expressed disbelief and frustration, the staffers responded that the City “heard us” and would be in touch.

One City staffer who spoke to us said, “We need a bit of time to clean, a bit of time to get the proverbial house in order, so we need to clean up the house a little bit.  So, what we are wanting [sic] to do is work with the three of you [the remaining UFS committee members] and ask for some time to pause.  So, we’re thinking 2 to 3 months.” See the meeting recording: https://tinyurl.com/sfy3a3cm, Passcode: D&A=%%5t. To hear this part, begin at 07:37 on the timeline. The entire meeting is worth watching in my opinion – it was a very emotional meeting.

Their message came across to me as disingenuous. If we were going to be on hold for an indefinite amount of time, the momentum would be lost and the remaining members might drift away. But because there were projects in process, grant money was coming in, and because UFS members were dedicated to the work, they refused to stop meeting.

To read more, see www.greshamtrees.org

A brief history of UFS

For those of you who aren’t familiar with UFS, it began in 1990 as the Tree Preservation Council Advisory Committee. In 2008, the Committee was renamed the Urban Forestry Subcommittee and was made up of City staff, tree professionals, and volunteers. UFS has written publications (for example, The Urban Forestry Management Plan at https://greshamoregon.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=1375), worked with neighborhood groups, and planted many trees through the years in cooperation with Friends of Trees and during Arbor Month activities.

UFS has met regularly every month for 20-plus years.

UFS’ chief role is to advise the City, but the resulting work has to be done by the City. This includes such things as updating City documents like the tree code, following up on tree code violations, and ensuring that new real estate developments adhere to tree-related regulations. One of the reasons the City gave as to why they wanted to shut down the CCACs was the “opportunity to relieve staff liaison ongoing workload.”

Over the past few years, UFS members had become frustrated with a lack of cooperation from the City.  Members dropped out, and as of now, only three members remain.

It seemed to me that the City stopped cooperating with all the CCACs around 2019 to 2022, and after members had quit and meetings began to be canceled, the City surveyed past and current CCAC members to ask their opinions of such things as whether their committee was effective. The results of the survey were mixed.

Despite being asked not to meet, UFS kept meeting. Two months passed. Three months passed. Four months passed. Then, on May 2, 2023, City staffers made a presentation to the Mayor and City Councilors based on survey results. We found out about it thanks to UFS’ chair, who attended the four o’clock meeting. The staffers recommended the dissolution of UFS and most of the other CCACs. Below are two slides from that presentation with my markups.

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See https://gresham.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=964&meta_id=59623

Members of the community and I wrote letters to City Council and spoke at Council meetings to complain. The City didn’t respond to us.

The idea of transforming UFS to task forces was disturbing. Task forces can be effective, but my experience of task forces in corporations is that they are mostly window-dressing for public relations. Because of the treatment UFS had already received, I was inclined to think the worst. The “ad hoc” part of it also meant that the City would decide who would participate, and when, or even if, a project needed to be done.

Summer 2023 Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Summer 2023 Newsletter Inside This Issue: Rockwood Urban Renewal B188 Wilkes East Land Use Update Climate Action Plan workshop Reynolds Schools Start & End Times WENA Summer Meeting August 14th

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

¡Descargue nuestro boletín en español aquí!. (incluye enlaces web activos)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our general meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

Spring 2023 Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Spring 2023 Newsletter Inside This Issue: New Play Structure Nadaka Park City Replaces LED Streetlights Urban Forestry in Gresham Caught on Camera WENA Board Elections March 13th

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

¡Descargue nuestro boletín en español aquí!. (incluye enlaces web activos)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our general meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

Fall 2022 Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Fall 2022 Newsletter Inside This Issue: Speeding 172nd, Injury Accident Fall 2022 Weather Outlook Local Adopt-A-Block Volunteers Proposed Habitat Project, Glisan WENA Board Elections Nov 14th

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

¡Descargue nuestro boletín en español aquí!. (incluye enlaces web activos)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our general meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates