What would Bill do?

Honoring Bill Naito's legacy this Arbor Month

Catherine Elaine Mushel, April 9 2014


Bill Naito

Consider the local leader who founded the City of Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission.

The leader who was a big part of many of Portland’s most iconic features, from the Portland Streetcar to Lan Su Classical Chinese Garden.

The same guy who thought the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Waterfront Park would be even more powerful, if framed by great swaths of beautiful Akebono Cherry trees.

Then ask yourself: This April -- Arbor Month -- what would Bill Naito do, given the chance?

The more one learns about Bill Naito, who passed in 1996, the more one understands the meaning of community. That’s why every spring since 1995, Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission has chosen one or more recipients for the Bill Naito Community Trees Award.


Bill's son Bob presents the 2012 Awards

The first honorees were Friends of Trees founder Richard Seidman, and Portland General Electric, the company that helped fund the original Seed the Future Campaign. Later recipients include Phyllis Reynolds, the author of Trees of Greater Portland, and an English as a Second Language class from David Douglas High School who planted nearly 1,000 trees in their community.

Throughout his life, Bill Naito championed projects and movements that helped Portland reinvent itself for the benefit of people from many different walks of life. Just a few examples: planting 10,000 street trees; launching the Japanese American Historical Plaza, Saturday Market, and Artquake in the 1980s and early ‘90s; helping to keep alive the White Stag sign; developing the McCormick Apartments that extended the livable city boundary to the north; and leading the preservation of Union Station.


Akebonos in bloom

It’s a legacy that has changed the face of Portland’s urban core, not least because Bill placed trees at the core of community building.

On April 26th, the Urban Forestry Commission will recognize our 2014 Bill Naito Community Trees Awardees. Each embodies one of two aspects that made Bill so effective: big picture thinking (e.g., that if we care for trees, then trees will take care of us); and the steady dedication, seed by seed, that’s required to restore a forest.

Congratulations to:

  • The 936 Portlanders -- led by arborist, Damon Schrosk who had the big idea, and hosted by Hoyt Arboretum Curator Martin Nicolson -- who this past July set the Arboretum's Guinness world record Tree Hug; and


  • A few of Hoyt's world record tree huggers

    Phil Hamilton, an extraordinary individual who has dedicated over 21,000 hours of service to documenting and restoring the forest of Tryon Creek State Natural Area. Almost any Saturday, you can find Phil at Tryon and work shoulder-to-shoulder with him to restore this remarkable state park within the boundaries of two cities.

Why not join us for the celebration? It’s what Bill would do.

 

Catherine Mushel, an Arbor Month volunteer with the City of Portland, has served on the City’s Urban Forestry Commission since 2011. Her fascination with urban trees began with lightning -- literally -- and has threaded through her work teaching English, remodeling houses, and designing gardens. “Go outside” is her first advice for anyone trying to understand the concept of urban forestry.

Comments

Submitted by Mary Anne Cassin (not verified) on
This is not in any way meant to diminish the legacy that Bill Naito left behind. I had the honor of working with him back when I was a landscape architect at Portland Parks in the 1980s (and beyond); he did indeed contribute mightily to our urban forest, among many other things. BUT I NEED TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT... the cherry trees were a gift to Portland from a trade business group, the Japanese Grain Importers Association. This group comprised a contingency of Japanese businessmen who were posted here for years at a time, far from their native land. They missed the Japanese spring ritual of taking time out in to consider how ephemeral life is, as displayed so beautifully and poignantly by the cherry blossoms. So they gifted 100 of them to the city (along with an establishment endowment!). PDC and Portland Parks decided to upgrade that section of the park to create a setting befitting of such a gift. The Historical Plaza followed that decision and we integrated it into the design. So the real story is arguably even more touching, and I hope readers will think about international friendship as well as life and legacies when they bloom next spring.

Submitted by Mirra Meyer (not verified) on
When Artquake was a fledgling attempt by downtown merchants to cope with an economic downturn, Bill was one of most significant downtown merchants who pitched in. I was an exhibitor at AQ when it began. Not a staff member. Not an employee. Just an artist wanting to be seen. On the last night of that festival the downtown streets had to be cleared for Monday morning traffic.There were no troops of corporate paid staff to clean up the streets. There were volunteers. And there were exhibitors who stayed to help out. I want you to know of just me as an exhibitor and Bill Naito as a sponsor. The two of us on a dark Sunday night loaded park benches onto a flat bed truck. I felt Bill Naito as a companion.There was a task that needed to be done. We didn't have to talk about it. We knew why were were there. We got it done. Then another Portlander person drove the truck away. Mirra Meyer

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