michael slater

Urban Planning, Landscape Design & Arboriculture

Cultivating successful spaces

My work explores how planning, landscape, ecology, and the built environment come together to shape the places where we live.

I am a planner, landscape designer, and ISA Certified Arborist based in Salem, Oregon. This site brings together my professional practice, civic and policy work, and writing about landscapes, communities, and the places we inherit and shape over time.

I work independently and in collaboration with architects, landscape architects, public agencies, property owners, and facilities staff, bringing particular attention to how landscapes develop and perform over time.

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Practice, Place & Ideas

My interests range across scales—from individual trees and planting areas to parks, neighborhoods, natural systems, and communities. Across that work, I am interested in how places change over time and how thoughtful decisions can make them healthier, more beautiful, more resilient, and better places for people.

My professional practice focuses on landscapes, trees, planting design, and planning. My civic work engages questions about growth, natural resources, parks, and public spaces. Through Grounded, I write about many of these same subjects and explore the larger ideas and policy choices that shape the built and natural environments.

I work with municipalities and public agencies, institutions, property owners, and organizations responsible for landscapes and public spaces—including parks, wineries, commercial properties, healthcare and institutional campuses, and other places where landscape quality matters.

I also collaborate with architects, landscape architects, planners, facilities professionals, and other consultants when projects benefit from specialized expertise in planting, trees, landscape stewardship, or urban planning.

Professional Practice

Planning & Urban Design

Landscape Design

Landscape
Stewardship

Arboriculture &

Urban Forestry

Planning for neighborhoods, parks, streetscapes, plazas, and other public spaces, including master planning, urban design, and assistance with municipal comprehensive planning.

Planting plans, plant selection, landscape renovation, and the mapping and planning of trees and plant collections for public, institutional, commercial, and other landscapes.

Landscape evaluations, landscape care plans, plant collection management, and strategies for improving the health and long-term performance of established landscapes.

Urban Forestry Plans

Tree Inventory & Mapping

Management Plans

Risk & Health Assessment

Selected Work

Planning and landscape challenges rarely fit neatly within a single discipline. These projects illustrate an approach that brings together planning, design, plants, trees, ecology, and long-term stewardship.

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Grounded

My recent writing on how we shape the places where we live—from city policy to the plants outside our front door — and why.

City Delays North Waterfront URA

The Truitt Brothers Cannery, active railroad, and nonconforming public street represent existing redevelopment challenges and opportunities within the proposed North Waterfront URA. Salem City Manager Krishna Namburi told the City Council, “I want us to take the time to get this right,” as she asked the Council to delay consideration of the North Waterfront Urban Renewal Area (URA) at last night’s Council meeting. The Council had been expected to adopt the plan and have a fir

Three Questions on the North Waterfront URA

In my letter to the City Council, I ask three questions about the North Waterfront URA. Where is the river in the North Waterfront Urban Renewal Area? Despite nearly 6,000 feet of Willamette River shoreline, none of the plan’s six goals are related to the river. Who are the stakeholders and what is the engagement process? The list of stakeholders for this diverse, historical, and complicated area could be long, but the plan provides no information about who will have a voice

Salem's Proposed North Waterfront Urban Renewal District Misses the River

A proposed new urban renewal area in Salem fails to integrate the Willamette River despite 6,000 feet of riverfront property. The City of Salem is proposing a new 421-acre urban renewal district. Oddly, the North Waterfront Urban Renewal District Plan has very little to say about the Willamette River or Willamette Greenway, despite the proposed district’s 6,000 feet of riverfront property. The urban renewal area (URA) is scheduled to run for 33 years and will capture $199 m

About Me

I am an urban planner, landscape designer, and ISA Certified Arborist based in Salem, Oregon. My professional and civic experience includes urban and regional planning, landscape design, arboriculture, natural-resource conservation, public landscape management, nonprofit leadership, and community involvement.

I serve on the Salem Planning Commission and I am actively engaged in questions about how Salem and the Willamette Valley grow and change.

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Contact Me

Email: michael.k.slater@gmail.com

Phone: 202.425-5493