[jyl]

That’s a funny story, about the Red Cedar trees.

I’ve looked at heat maps of Portland, and some neighborhoods are significantly cooler than others in summer. It’s because of street trees. Our neighborhood was platted in 1909 and over a thousand street trees were planted. They grew into a wonderful urban forest that makes the streets shady and beautiful, plus we have a lot of birds and squirrels (and raccoons). In addition to the cedars, I have four huge street trees. Some of the original trees are silver maples that are nearing the end of their life, so every year more are taken out. People mostly replace them, which is good.

I didn’t appreciate how much the climate has changed and the resulting stress on the older trees. This winter, I’m going to figure out how to disconnect my downspouts from the sewer system (we have a combined sewer/storm water system, which sucks but replacing it would cost a fortune) and divert them to water the trees.