Testify for Trees
How to Testify Before City Council and City Council Committees
You can communicate with the City Council or City Council Committees such as the Climate, Resilience, and Land Use Committee by giving in-person, virtual, or written testimony. Carefully follow the directions here to register for in-person or virtual testimony or to submit written testimony.
Oral testimony should be no longer than 2 minutes
We suggest limiting written testimony to 1 page.
For more information read here.
Can't attend the hearing?
Watch it live at https://www.portlandoregon.gov/28258.
Want to watch it after the fact? Do that here.
Contact the Mayor and your City Councilors today!
As of January 2025, Portland has a 12-member City Council representing 4 districts. Contact individual councilors using their emails, listed below, or use the Contact an Elected Official form on the City’s website.
Mayor Keith Wilson, mayor@portlandoregon.gov.
District 1
Candace Avalos councilor.avalos@portlandoregon.gov, Loretta Smith councilor.smith@portlandoregon.gov, and Jamie Dunphy councilor.dunphy@portlandoregon.gov.
District 2
Sameer Kanal councilor.kanal@portlandoregon.gov, Elana Pirtle-Guiney councilor.pirtle-guiney@portlandoregon.gov, and Dan Ryan councilor.ryan@portlandoregon.gov.
District 3
Tiffany Koyama Lane councilor.koyamalane@portlandoregon.gov, Angelita Morillo councilor.morillo@portlandoregon.gov, and Steve Novick councilor.novick@portlandoregon.gov.
District 4
Olivia Clark councilor.clark@portlandoregon.gov, Mitch Green councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov, and Eric Zimmerman councilor.zimmerman@portlandoregon.gov.
City Council Committees
As of February 2026, City Council restructured its committees, downsizing from eight to five committees. These committees act as legislative bodies that debate and draft policies, receive public comments, and send legislation to the full City Council. For tree advocates, the former Climate, Resilience, and Land Use Committee was most relevant. The new committee reorganization, in contrast, has spread climate and tree canopy issues across several committees.
According to the full list of new committees and their purviews that we received from Councilor Samir Kanal, the new Public Works committee includes “Parks programs within Parks & Recreation,” the new City Life committee covers “climate change prevention and mitigation” as well as “Bureaus addressing climate…,” and the Housing & Permitting committee oversees “permitting, zoning, and other land use decisions,” which include tree permitting, as that function is now in the Permitting and Development Bureau rather than its original home, Parks/Urban Forestry.
Below are the committees that now appear to oversee trees and climate-related matters, among a diverse range of other issues. We will include links to these committees once they are fully up and running.
Public Works Committee
Sameer Kanal, Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Mitch Green
City Life Committee
Candace Avalos, Angelita Morillo, Dan Ryan