Trees of Peninsula Park

Park Tree History

Over 120 years ago, the Piedmont neighborhood existed between the boundaries of NE Killingsworth Street and NE Portland Boulevard (now known as NE Rosa Parks Avenue). First planned out as part of the independent city of Albina in 1889 (and annexed by the city of Portland two years later) and was developed by real estate developers Edward Quakenbush and William M. Ladd. For a long time, the strip of land was deeded by the Portland and Vancouver Railway company, which increased transportation to and from inner Portland, however residential neighborhoods didn’t become prominent until the 1920’s to 1939. Many of the characteristic bungalows and cottages in this neighborhood still have trees planted by the first residents. The addition of trees around the neighborhood was prompted by an effort to plant more street trees to beautify the city in the vein of Paris’ tree-lined boulevards. This began with three miles of street trees planted in 1913 in the Peninsula neighborhood and continued throughout 1914.

As mentioned in my previous post, Liverpool Liz was the previous owner of the land that is now known as Peninsula Park. She built a simple racetrack on her rugged tract of land but left second-growth Douglas-fir trees. Portland acquired the tract in 1909 and commissioned Emanuel Mische to design the park. Mische was a disciple of Frederick Law Olmsted famous landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park. His intention was to create a park with a variety of uses and functions much like his mentor. Like Liverpool Liz, Mische also felt compelled to preserve the Douglas-fir in the northwest end of the park, as it had become an emblem of the state, but removed many throughout the rest of the area to make room for the European-style rose garden.

Several impressive Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas Fir) groves exist within Portland city limits. Peninsula Park being one of them alongside Forest Park, Laurelhurst Park, and Mt. Tabor. Among the Douglas-fir, Tilia tomentosa (silver linden) can be seen on the south end of Peninsula Park around the garden’s perimeter, which were planted in 1912 after the parks’ establishment. According to historical records, they are almost 100 years old. However, these silver linden are not regarded as heritage trees. Within the rose garden, there are 16 catalpa trees. Unfortunately, there was no information about when they were added.

I could not find more literature or data on the trees that are currently established in the park. There wasn’t anything I could find regarding when they were planted, only inventory data from 2018. I can only assume many management plans throughout the century involved the removal and addition of trees due to many reasons, such as aesthetics or environmental factors. However, from the historical records that were available showed that some of the other broad leaf trees and 3-needled pines have been around for at least a century. These are the Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky Coffeetree) and the Quercus rubra (Northern Red Oak), as well as the Pinus coulteri (Coulter pine) and Pinus jeffreyi (Jeffery pine).

Table 1 shows a list of the types of trees within the park currently, and whether they are native or non-native. The majority of the park’s trees are non-native, which leads me to assume they’re mostly ornamental. And only five species native to the PNW are found within the park, the majority being Douglas fir with 124 stands. The other native species include Quercus garryana (Oregon white oak), Cornus nuttallii (Pacific dogwood), Arbutus menziesii (Pacific madrone), and Thuja plicata (western redcedar). In addition to my final thoughts for the next Natural History & Ecology Field Report, I intend to conduct a survey of the area in-person, as well as using data collected by Portland Parks and Recreation, to analyze the trees in different sites within the park.

Table 1. Count of native vs. non-native species.

Common names	Non-native	Native
American elm	1
American hornbeam, blue beech	5
American linden	1
American smoketree	1
American yellowwood	4
Amur maackia	1
bird cherry	1
black tupelo	5
box elder	1
Colorado blue spruce	1
common hackberry	5
Coulter pine	1
Douglas-fir		124
eastern dogwood	1
eastern redbud	1
European beech	4
European white birch	3
flowering ash	1
flowering pear	6
flowering plum	1
green ash	6
hiba arborvitae, thujopsis	2
Hinoki falsecypress	4
Japanese flowering cherry	10
Japanese maple	1
Jeffrey pine	2
Kentucky coffeetree	7
kousa dogwood	1
littleleaf linden	2
magnolia	1
northern red oak	3
Oregon white oak		2
ornamental crabapple	3
Pacific dogwood		4
Pacific madrone		1
paperbark cherry, birchbark cherry, Tibetan cherry	2
pin oak	7
Portugal laurel, Portuguese laurel	1
saucer magnolia	1
scarlet oak	1
silver linden	34
southern catalpa	17
southern magnolia	1
sugar maple	1
sycamore maple	3
western redcedar		5
Grand Total	154	136

Sources:


https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/article/655397



https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/article/433143#data



https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/article/95956