Earlier, some of you were discussing the beautiful small towns that have been abandoned...and that's true in our area, too. Maybe not as much as the Mid-west, but the mountain areas (eastern Washington state) also has large farming areas, with many abandoned small towns. I know many people move to the 'coast' because that's where many of the businesses (and jobs) seem to be. But, in the age of computers...why aren't more people moving to inexpensive, lovely and green towns...and faxing in the work? Just an observation. As for the drought, I am so sorry that your water is being shipped off to parts unknown. We pay higher electricity rates, because much of our power is shipped to California, so I know a little of that frustration...especially with our winter heat bills skyrocketing. When you have snow and below zero temperatures (and too many cloudy days for effective solar) you have to pay the electric bill!

I have three paw paw cultivars doing incredibly well in van nuys, california, which is VERY hot and desert like, bearing quite a lot of this delicious fruit, which I prefer to all annona's save for the Guanabana (Anonna Muricata)...which very tropical fruit is seen in produce markets all over the world's tropics. Mt three paw paw cultivars are Sunflower, Rebecca's Gold, Wells. But I just had 7 more shipped to me from Oregon: Shenandoah, Susquehanna, Allegany, Wabash, Potomac, Mango, KSU Atwood. These 7 recent arrivals will take maybe three or four years to flower, and I planted them amongst several Cherimoya cultivars plus one Atemoya. The beauty of experimenting with a transgeneric cross, in this case, is that cherimoyas MUST be HAND POLINATED...meaning that a human hand must do the work normally done buy flying bugs, meaning there is no chance for accidents in identifying WHAT sort of pollen will have been used IF a cherimoya flower comes to produce a fruit. OR - if you've brushed the slightly opened cherimoya stigma with fresh paw paw polin, any fruit that sets therefrom, though itself will be all cherimoya in flesh an shape, but the SEEDS will have DIFFERENT DNA. Then when you plant these seeds, you must HOPE they will germinate an strike root. IF they do...WOW! This post was edited by Guy2882 on Sat, Jan 12, 13 at 9:13

I wholeheartedly agree with the diversity comments! Of the trees mentioned, I planted my first (2'?) Acer Triflorum in 1998 and then moved it two years later. It’s been a very nice investment. I tried planting another 3’ triflorum four years ago, but it didn’t survive the drought that first year, and my watering probably didn’t help. We have very well drained soil, but it floods along a dry stream from time to time with summertime thunderstorms. Flooding seldom lasts more than a couple of hours. Both triflorums were planted in the area that floods. Planted two more 18” triflorum two years ago and they’re doing fine so far. I planted my first Yellowwood around 1980. It suffered damage in one of the droughts a few years ago. I think nearly 1/3rd of the tree died back, but it has recovered. It has been a great tree to have in the yard. I planted another (2’ tall?) in 2011 in a better area of the yard and it’s off to a very good start. I’ve finally been able to get Chinkapin Oaks established from a nearly 200-year-old specimen in the back yard. The squirrels kept digging them up each spring! I’ve got one that’s now about 20 feet tall. If it has the same great shape of the parent tree, someone’s great-grandchildren will hopefully appreciate it! We've got one started in a neighbor's yard, too! I keep trying to select those seedlings with the reddest leaves, but have little luck getting saplings with very much red color—so far. I highly recommend Chinkapin Oak if you can get it and can deal with the acorns. Unfortunately, the old tree is showing its age and will need to come down before long. It’s been the best looking of the mature oaks in the area and I hate to see it go. Black Gum/Tupelo was mentioned, too. I tried to get two of these (3’ or so?) started in 1979. One died the first year and the other struggled for 6-7 years before I finally gave up on it. I planted another smaller Black Gum in 2011. It’s slow-growing in quite a bit of shade, but seems to be doing fine so far. Parrotia. We planted our little (2’?) Parrotia in 1996. Moved it in 1998 and it has done extraordinarily well ever since. It suffered a little in a drought a few years ago, but recovered nicely. We had to remove our 75+ years old sugar maple 4 years ago after the power company butchered it. I replaced it with a Legacy and planted it farther from the street. It’s doing very nicely. My biggest regret over the years has been planting two River Birch in 1998. Messy trees. One of them goes as soon as the newer Yellowwood gets some size. Maybe in a couple of years. And, help your neighbors choose and plant trees! Future generations will appreciate the effort, anonymous though you may be by then.

The planet will survive. Eventually, Humans who are like breeding like cockroaches with that technology and health care induced long life span may not. Wildfires are normal but used to be people had common sense to not live in areas that were prone to that. When you built a farm you cleared the land especially in the direction of prevailing winds. Hurricanes are normal, we had a house on a hill near the ocean but not on the ocean - common sense, but now look at the crowded shorelines. After a disaster property values plummet, 5 years later its a boom town again. Yes, we should continue to try to be cleaner, the waters and air in NY are cleaner than ever (no industry anymore we sent it to China where they pollute themselves creating crap we need, to make money to feed the billions there). Another conventional world war or global pandemic would do wonders. Computers pollute, phones pollute, modern life pollutes - reality. Killing any semblence of an economy or a way of life to save nobody isn't helpful either....the sky is falling. multiple deadlines for armegeddon have passed we're all still here. In NY activists and pandering pols refusal to allow a natural gas pipeline (pretty clean burn) has now stopped all new gas hookups and upgrades for NYC and Westchester - a great green victory - maybe a solar panel will heat the house and office tower in winter in the northeast. True ground breakers of cheap limitless clean energy are a century away. Nuclear fusion (not fission) may yet happen...in another 100 years. They may yet find a way to harness hydrogen efficiently in another 50 years. Solar panels and windmills wont do it. Many current scenarios of GREEN only makes matters worse