Portland, Oregon approved street tree planting lists, 2025 reference table

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It is also not planting advice and it does not say which tree suits a site. Portland does not publish one list. Parks and Recreation Urban Forestry keeps Approved Street Tree Planting Lists, one for each planting-strip width, split by whether high voltage power lines are overhead. The city also posts a reference table that holds every site type and every tree option in one spreadsheet. The file is named as the 2025 table, and its workbook properties show it was created on June 23, 2025 and last saved on October 2, 2026.

The six lists

The planting lists page names six lists. Each one is its own page with a table of tree type, common name, scientific name, size as height by width, features and a short description.

The spreadsheet has 144 rows under 55 tree types. The 3.0 to 3.9 foot web page says its trees are generally 20 to 35 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide at maturity. The page says to measure the planting space from the inside of the curb to the edge of the sidewalk. For an unimproved right-of-way, with no sidewalk or no curb, the page names the 6.0 foot and greater list where high voltage lines are overhead, and the 8.5 foot and greater list where they are not.

What the list says about maples and ash

The FAQ on the lists page says maples are not approved for planting in the right-of-way. It gives the reason that maples make up approximately 24% of Portland’s street tree population, according to the city’s Street Tree Inventory Report, and it names the Asian longhorned beetle and anthracnose as threats to maples. It says maples may be added later if canopy or inventory studies show they are more appropriately represented. The same FAQ says ash trees are not approved because of the emerald ash borer, first seen on the West Coast in Forest Grove, Oregon in 2022. The lists page also says the lists are updated approximately every three to five years.

Permit step printed with the lists

The page says a street planting needs a planting permit that is free and includes an on-site inspection, and that Urban Forestry tree inspectors send the list that fits the site. It says a tree inspector can also approve other species that suit the space. The city’s Tree Code is Title 11.

Tree types in the reference table

The table groups the rows as the spreadsheet does, by its Tree Type column. The scientific names are copied as the city writes them, including cultivar names in single quotes. The last column counts the spreadsheet rows for that type. Common names, sizes, features and descriptions are on the city’s file.

Limits

• The spreadsheet has no printed approval date. The dates above come from the file name and the workbook properties.
• The spreadsheet has one column for a 3 foot strip with power lines, while the web list for that width says with or without power lines, so the two counts are not the same thing.
• Portland’s own permit and inventory pages are the place to check a change. This page does not copy sizes, features or descriptions.

This list sits beside the others on the city lists comparison page. For how a list like this fits the research on mixing species, see the street tree diversity page.

Sources

• City of Portland, Parks and Recreation Urban Forestry, Approved Street Tree Planting Lists page and FAQ, read October 9, 2026
• City of Portland, Approved Street Tree List Reference Table (2025), Excel file, read October 9, 2026
• City of Portland, 3.0 to 3.9 foot wide spaces list, read October 9, 2026
• City of Portland, 8.5 foot wide and greater planting spaces list, read October 9, 2026