I am a big fan of Friends of Trees (https://www.friendsoftrees.org/). They are a marvelous nonprofit organization, celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. In that time span they have planted half a million trees in Portland neighborhoods. Yes, you read that correctly – 1/2million trees. They are true tree-huggers. Which brings me to the photo for today. As a volunteer I take pictures of many of their events. Last weekend, I had lots of fun at a “tree hugging” bash. Here we see preparations for a fantastic effort by Ascending the Giants (https://ascendingthegiants.com) to have 24 people climb and hug one tree. These are serious climbers, as you can see all the climbing rope hanging down. In this photo, I shot up to get a perspective of how big the tree is and the ropes guide your eye to the top. At the very bottom, I kept the one person beginning her ascent and an arm hanging on to a rope to add extra drama to the scene.
