Tree from Hell

Tree of Heaven Growing Next to a House
A tree of heaven growing out of the side of a porch in Portland, OR

I have been fighting an enemy that continually sends in reinforcements and those reinforcements seem to pop up in all kinds of locations that are meant to ambush me. Locations that are hard to reach or they show up even stronger than before, attempting to break my will to fight them. I’m talking of course about the tree of heaven or Ailanthus altissima, or as I like to call it, the tree from hell. Go ahead, read up on this kryptonite of a tree, but if you don’t have time for that, here are some quick, important points about it.

  1. The tree of heaven crowds out native species and secretes a chemical into the soil that is toxic to surrounding plants.
  2. The tree’s aggressive root system can cause damage to pavement, sewers and building foundations.
  3. If the plant has matured, cutting alone will only help temporarily by reducing its ability to spread.
  4. The wood is useless. It is brittle and has no structural value and burns poorly.
  5. The cuttings smell like burning garbage.

Those are just a few of the issues with the tree of heaven. Really, it comes down to how easily it spreads and how quickly it grows. I can rip out the seedlings, getting all of the root, but more plants will show up in a week or so. If I give the plants more than a month, then their roots become established and it’s even harder to get rid of it. There are two full grown tree of heaven next door to our house in the exact disturbed soil that they so much love and they are constantly dropping seeds. On a windy day those seeds get carried all over the neighborhood and we’ll find seedlings growing on our evening walks. Some people let the seedlings grow because it looks like a tree, but they don’t understand that it is invasive. They don’t know that it spreads so fast it’s hard to control. Even in the image at the top of this post, there is another tree growing across the street from the mother tree. It spreads like a disease.

Unfortunately, the city of Portland has been somewhat reluctant to take fast action against the tree and they are popping up everywhere. Part of the issue is that the city says it’s a “nuisance” tree not “invasive”, even though a post on their website calls it invasive. Since the tree is a nuisance, it requires a paid permit to remove. This should be a case where the city sends a worker out, confirms it’s a tree of heaven and lets the trees removal occur without a permit. It’s going to cost property owners enough just to get them removed, and it’s not a single step process. Even with the tree cut down, there are multiple applications of chemicals needed to kill the root system and insure the plant doesn’t come back. The other option for the homeowner is that they let the tree grow and risk it causing physical property damage.

Tree of Heaven on a sidewalk

The big headache comes when a tree of heaven hits a sewer or water main. Only then does the city care about the tree and the problems it causes. There’s a train yard not far from our neighborhood and there swaths of trees of heaven covering parts of the yard. I would guess because it’s open area where wind can easily blow, they are one of the main spreader areas for the tree of heaven.

For my fellow Portlanders please give the city a call if you see one of these trees on city property; They are commonly on sidewalks next to power line poles and near fence lines. If you need help with the tree of heaven, you can also contact TenPDX.

Alaska Airlines adds new service between Portland, Oregon and Orlando

new_alaska_livery

Alaska Airlines announced today that they will start non-stop service between Portland, Oregon and Orlando, Florida. The route will start in March of 2017 and will be a daily service. What is interesting, and a great feature, is that both the outbound and return flights will operate during the day, meaning you don’t have to a take a red-eye to get to Florida.

The Portland to Orlando segment will leave at 6:40am Pacific and will arrive in Florida at 3:15pm Eastern. The return Orlando to Portland flight will leave at 4:15pm Eastern and land in Portland at 7:35pm Pacific.

As a resident I am happy to see more growth at Portland but I worry that the airport facilities are not growing at the same pace. The Alaska Airlines side of the airport is very crowded but that will be changing in the future as Alaska move their operations to the E gates on the opposite side of the airport.

Big thanks to Seth for giving me the heads up the announcement.

A Portland Sunset

The last week of storms have had amazing sunsets accompanying them. This one was particularly breathtaking, the clouds created a shadow over where I was taking the picture and completely backlit the hills you see in the distance. The deep orange and yellow were just too amazing to not take a photo. This was taken on my iPhone but I even ran back inside and loaded the battery and memory card in my DSLR camera and was able to get a few good shots with it as well.

Sunset over Portland, Oregon

Houston, it’s not me, it’s you

Portland, Oregon

Houston, I grew up on your suburban streets. You have been my home for the better part of 25 years. But, it is time for a change. We’ve grown apart the past five or six years, my work taking me to Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and D.C. for most of the week. I would return on Thursday evenings and enjoy a fun weekend. That has happened less and less the last couple of years and I blame you. You have grown too big too fast and I long for the Houston of my youth. Not only have you grown, you have become more expensive, yet added little in the way of benefits. All of this, coupled with the heat, has made you less enjoyable.

So, my family and I are leaving for greener (literally and figuratively) pastures in Oregon. We are giving up the 100 degree summers for 80 degree summers. We are giving up Saturday afternoon traffic for Saturday afternoon hiking. We are giving up newscasts where the nightly report is a shooting or stabbing for a nightly newscast where the big story is “What to do with all that cauliflower”. We are slowing down. We are going to enjoy life and our city, not have our city rush us from one place to the next, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

We are giving up this:

Houston Skyline

For this:

Multnomah Falls

Yes, the news is true. We are leaving Houston for Portland come July. With my work being focused on traveling to customer sites, we can be based anywhere there is an airport. We are ready for a change of scenery. We are ready for somewhere where 30 minutes away we can go for a hike and see waterfalls like Multnomah Falls pictured above. I am willing to put up with rain and gray days for the opportunity to have summers that are spectacular and give my family the ability to be outdoors most of the time.

This has been a long time coming. We had our hearts set on moving to Berlin but I was not able to find an opportunity with my company there, so we started exploring cities in the U.S. We have always loved Portland and on our most recent trip back, we knew it was where we wanted to live. It is a big city that doesn’t feel like a big city. The downtown is well laid out, the people are friendly, and the weather, even when it is raining, is pleasant.

Of course, we are sad to leave our family and friends in Houston, but we will certainly be back to visit. This decision was not an easy one but we do believe we are doing what is right for us as a family.

That is all as far as Portland news is concerned. Now back to your regularly scheduled travel post!