I have some single needle (monophylla) but most are double needle (edulus). Elevation is 4800 feet but the real problem is the dry hot wind up on this bluff of sand. Not real easy to get Monophylla.. It sounds like pinetree 30 thinks the edulus would do best on the dune.. I will supplement the soil. It is a sag brush hill side now so I can plant on the leeward side of one of them. How close?? I have 3 8' trees growing for 3 years now but they were 5-6' when I planted them. THe city has planted some pinyons 5-6' on the same hillside on a drip system. They are still alive but are not near the top of the bluff and are a little more wind protected. I am planting these all on a city owned hillside just as my part to make the world greener. Maybe in 40 years my kids will drive by and say we helped papa plant that Forrest.

My sad story. There is a pair of cranes that live near me. They had two babies earlier this year & every morning they would pass through my yard from the vacant block to the lake. One morning I heard them making the most awful loud noise, as only a sandhill crane can. Looking out the door, I saw two stray dogs chasing the adults through the neighbors yard. I ran out, yelling & waving my arms. The dogs stopped, looked at me for a moment then left. Obvious, the adults were trying to lead the dogs away from their young. A few minutes later the adults reappeared with only one baby. Obviously, the dogs had killed one. I have pictures I took the first time they came throught my yard with the babies. They were covered in their soft yellow down before any feathers appeared. It makes me so mad that people let their dogs run loose.

Chiming in late, but a commercial property I managed for years was recently sold, and the property inspector found woodpecker holes in the back corner of the building. Apparently a woodpecker would hammer there regularly. The tenant on that corner never told me about it because they actually liked the noise! Anyway, I had the damage repaired and bought a cheap bird repellent kit at the h/w store. It had a couple brackets with mylar ribbons that blow all around in the wind. It did work to scare the woodpecker away! Maybe you could put mylar ribbons on some poles? Some people say they've had good luck using pin wheels to scare the critters off.

No problem with water. The lake is at least 5 feet below usual. Two nests were close enough to see this year, which brought folks out in droves shooting pics of them. I got to see a chick within 3 minutes of hatching (and ashamed to say, I didn't have a camera on me!). We winter in the Ocala National Forest in FL, and there are lots of sandhill cranes. Many live here year around, but some migrate north. The ones who stay all year stroll through yards and mobile home parks. In one park, a couple walks their great dane, and she said the local birds ignore him, the migratory ones whoop and jump around, because they aren't used to him.