The Talent Turnaround. Epic Rebound Celebrated
Maybe Talent should have been called Phoenix…oh, sorry, that one’s taken. But nevertheless the analogy applies. From smoke, and evacuation, to the return of green, and a little piece of peace, Talent has seen it all. We’ve been focused a lot on trees this spring, and with good reason. And here is a highlight we like to call the Talent Turnaround.
And after losing close to 3,000 trees in the Almeda Fire in 2020, the city of Talent has rebounded with new plantings each year, which led to the town being named the Oregon Department of Forestry’s 2023 Oregon Tree City of the Year. The project also showed how technology and volunteers can help map out the proper places for plantings.
This award is by any stretch of the imagination overwhelming at best. To those who were evacuated, and those who remember the devastation that Talent went through, it’s nothing short of a miracle. Volunteers, community working with city employees, nonprofits, donors and workers and concerned citizens all did their part in making this happen.
Trees bring shade, and comfort. They provide peace and quiet gathering spots. They nurture small animals and us humans equally. Talent has been one of Oregon’s 69 designated Tree City USA communities for 23 years (CRT will highlight other Oregon community winners in a later post), but this is the city’s first time winning the statewide award.
“For this year, it’s only March, and we are poised to plant over 1,000 trees,” said Mike Oxendine, the hazard mitigation coordinator for the city. Oxendine is also staff liaison to the Talent Urban Forestry Committee and project lead for the city’s new urban forest master plan. On a personal note, he is very easy to reach and excellent at following up. “In the first two years of the existence of this committee, we planted 358 trees, and these are all large, 2-inch caliper trees,” he relates.
Over the past year, the committee has logged more than 880 volunteer hours, and its work has been awarded $480,500 in grants to support planting trees. In a press release sent by ODF, Brittany Oxford, urban and community assistance forester, explained some of the reasons Talent was chosen for the award. “After being devastated by the 2020 wildfire, Talent has rallied as a community, becoming very invested and committed to their urban forest. In the face of traumatic and devastating loss, they still managed to outscore all of our other growth award applicants,” she said.
She also praised the city for its work with an ODF grant received last year to help the city create an inventory of its trees. The grant gave the city’s tree committee access to the expensive software PlanIt Geo (also known as TreePlotter). Through hundreds of volunteer hours and using the software, Talent has pinpointed 1,500 street and park trees throughout the city. "They have been mapping their canopy with an equity-informed focus guiding their reforestation efforts. The city is working hard to ensure the historically underserved in Talent are the starting point from which they begin to reforest and recover,” she said in the press release.
Oxendine noted that in particular, schools, low-income housing, and senior facilities were objects of replanting – or in many cases, planting for the first time. Thus, a perfect storm gets a perfect response and a well-deserved award. We are hopeful that Talent’s coordinated and calibrated response can serve as a model and transferred to other, smaller communities.
All of this also revolves around communication: Between people on the ground, different groups, and different managers. Communication through groups and nonprofits such as CRT help volunteers connect.
We are happy to shine a light on the Talent Turnaround!