A cutting from one of Gresham's former towering old-growth trees that was struck by lightning in 2017. (Staff photo: Christopher Keizur)

“Here there (used to) be giants.”

More than a century ago, Gresham’s landscape was vastly different from the sprawling urban center that now dominates East Multnomah County. The region was filled with old-growth forests featuring towering western red cedars, hemlocks, bigleaf maples, and Douglas firs.

But things changed between 1850 and 1935. Almost all of those forests were clear-cut for timber harvest, farming, and the burgeoning urban developments.

Now, only a few small patches of Gresham’s old-growth trees have been retained. They are primarily clustered in pockets within the sheltered valleys on the buttes.

In 2017, Gresham lost a 200-foot-tall Douglas fir tree that was growing on West Bliss Butte. That “giant” was struck by lightning during a vicious storm and caught fire. After several attempts to douse the blaze, the difficult decision was made to fell the tree to prevent the wildfire from spreading.

Officials wanted to celebrate that impressive tree, which dates back to the early 1700s. The city’s Natural Resources Program and Metro’s Land Management arranged for the collection of two slices (cookies) from the downed tree in 2020.

One of those slices was processed by dendroecologist Dr. Andrew Merschel in his Corvallis facility. That 6-foot-wide piece, which weighs nearly 800 pounds, is on display at Gresham City Hall.

While Gresham lost that old-growth tree, there are still four other hard-to-reach ones thriving on West Bliss Butte. There is also a 252-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in Portland’s Macleay Park, and several stretching higher than 300 feet in Oxbow Park.