PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland enters triple-digits Thursday as a last hurrah of summer heat. But you may want to find a nice place to cool off in the shade as you wait for the fall breeze to roll in.
Even as back-to-school routines were just getting started, plenty of area schools announced early releases on Thursday due to the heat. Splash pads and a select few cooling centers are also expected to be in full swing.
However, if you don't feel like getting wet but still want to cool off on the street, taking refuge under a tree can be a great option. Though Portland's tree canopy has been in decline in recent years, there's an effort underway by Portland Parks and Recreation to reverse that trend, particularly on the lesser-shaded east side.
In fact, PP&R has an interactive map that shows the canopy coverage for every area of the city. In general, you'll find the most shade from trees on the west side of the Willamette River, with an average canopy cover of 45.6%, excluding Forest Park. On the east side, that figure is a mere 22.3%.
The map was created using Metro's 2019 Canopy dataset, collected in part using LiDAR and aerial images. It breaks down canopy coverage by neighborhood.
It should come as no surprise that the most canopy-covered neighborhood is Forest Park, at 90.8%, followed by Arnold Creek at 69.4% as the second-most covered. The neighborhood with the least canopy coverage is Portland International Airport at 4%, followed by the Northwest Industrial Neighborhood at 4.2% as the second-least covered.
KOIN 6 waded through the numbers to give you the top 10 most tree-covered neighborhoods, broken down by the west and east regions since there's such a dramatic disparity between the two. The results are below.
| Neighborhood Name | Canopy Cover (%) |
| Forest Park | 90.80% |
| Arnold Creek | 69.40% |
| Homestead | 68.90% |
| Arlington Heights | 67.50% |
| Marshall Park | 66.10% |
| Hillside | 63.50% |
| Collins View | 61.20% |
| Southwest Hills | 59.60% |
| Sylvan Highlands | 58.20% |
| Crestwood | 56.20% |
| Neighborhood Name | Canopy Cover (%) |
| Pleasant Valley | 51.70% |
| Eastmoreland | 40.70% |
| Laurelhurst | 38% |
| Ardenwald-Johnson Creek | 37.80% |
| Irvington | 36.60% |
| Mt. Tabor | 34.10% |
| Sellwood-Moreland | 32.10% |
| Madison South | 31.90% |
| Grant Park | 31.50% |
| Woodland Park | 31.10% |
In terms of why the west side is covered in so many more trees than the east side, Alex Javier, a spokesperson for PP&R, told KOIN 6 News historic redlining is partially to blame. However, PP&R is trying to rectify that by planting more trees in areas of the city that have less coverage.
The map data PP&R released also shows that areas of the city with less tree canopy coverage generally have higher instances of urban heat and risk to vulnerable populations when compared to Multnomah County's Heat Vulnerability Index.
