I've been doing this since 2009. When the Silver Maple and Red Maple drop their seeds, I grab a dozen of each and get them started in seedling trays. By late summer, I move everything into 1 gal. pots. The next spring, they get moved into 2 gal. pots and then by late summer they go into 3 gal. pots. The following spring I give them away to folks that will plant them. I also do this with Long Needle Pine and Oak. I'll take a picture later today of what I have on hold for the area schools for this year.

You could be speaking for us. As our climate has grown hotter, we also have learned that trees are our friends. The two California pepper trees we planted almost a decade ago along our Eastern property line have been such a blessing. A handful of years later, we planted a purple-flowered Desert Willow at the West end of the property

Psoralea pinnata comes next:
http://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/view/?id=881

Some of the Plumerias on the hillside are now more than 5-ft. tall. They make no shade in the winter, but in the summer they do -- and color as well, of course.

I've been reading as much as I can about what we can expect in the future, and unfortunately I believe that in all probability life on this planet will not survive, and the most recent predictions are that the end is coming much sooner than was thought. However, we can only live in the day-to-day present, and planting trees is something we can all do to make our lives more livable for as long as possible. I'm finding that shrubs such as vitex purpurea grow very quickly here, and mine is, after about two years, about eight feet tall and almost as wide. It's outgrowing its space a bit, and I use the soft leaves and branches that I trim off as mulch for the roses. The vitex is protecting part of the house wall against the hot sun, and I've considered planting it elsewhere for shade and cover for the wild creatures. I will no longer be cutting back the crape myrtles or lavender starflower bushes, all of which are taking over the garden plots on the side. I won't be adding more roses, and will instead begin cutting back even more, leaving only those that I truly love and that can withstand my conditions. I'm finding that it's very peaceful to sit on the bench under the pergola and see nothing but green and glimpses of the hills. Achieving the right balance varies at different times in our lives, and fewer and better roses, with more shrubs and trees ,seems just right for me at the present time.

Melissa, I agree. There's no substitute for a tree thoughtfully chosen and carefully planted. We've lived in places where somebody must have thought there was. It was difficult and expensive to fix the problems that were created. What a difference it makes in a neighborhood, though, when there are healthy mature trees.

Ken, from a citizen of the world, thanks for the work you're doing. Have you considered branching out into oaks? In my experience acorns germinate easily, and there are noble kinds in the genus (and some not so noble, so you have to pick).

I love the trees we have here... I love trees just generally, although having lived through Hugo and other violent storms, I don't trust pine trees anywhere close to the house. Yes, the acorns and pollen are messy, but the leaves are so wonderful for mulching.

We live in an older neighborhood with many mature trees- mostly oaks- but as new neighbors move in, they cut down the trees. All these people seem to want is very short, green grass....[yawn]......zzzzzzzzzzz.....

Melissa, I wish I could send you acorns/ saplings. We have plenty.

Virginia

Indeed..

My apologies, Ken, for my sloppy reading of your post; on a second pass I saw that you are in fact also growing oaks and pines. It sounds like your area is in good hands, treewise. Keep up the good work!

If there's any kind of an acorn crop I can get acorns; I don't know if the drought this year will impede their formation. We're also loaded with oak seedlings, though our success rate transplanting them leaves something to be desired. These and flowering ashes, sometimes dug up, sometimes purchased as baby plants from my go-to nursery, are my favorite trees for planting. Other preferred shrub-trees are hazelnuts, laurnums, and Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas). And then there are the non-natives, mainly for the garden, while these are both for the garden and the woods.

Ingrid, I don't know where we and the world we live in are going. But I do know that I feel better when I take even small steps to improve matters. Hence the trees.

I've believed since I was a child that a good tree is perhaps the noblest and most beautiful of living things

The tree's headed to the different schools in the county.

7 Silver Maple and 6 Long Needle Pine's.

They are darling as are you, Ken! Keep on keeping on! best wishes from bart

Melissa, we have been away for awhile and so I did not comment at the time but I am hoping that your DH is happily ensconced at home now after his hospital stay and recovering rapidly.

Cath

Wish your DH for a speedy recovery too!

What about furit trees? I collected persimmon and Jujube trees this year.

I would think that any kind of tree is useful, and if they give fruit so much the better. Whatever you can't eat will surely be snapped up by hungry birds.

A wonderful post, Melissa! Around Portland, anything we wish to pass along can be placed along the parking strip. Potted trees with instruction stakes seem to be very popular! Fig branches root like butter and Clerodenrums sucker consistently. Maples of many varieties are easily grown from seed. Ken, from another planet dweller who is raising a member of the next generation of planet dwellers, thank you so much for all your work. Bart, well said! Melissa best wishes for your husband's quick and full recovery. Carol

Not just on personal property - cities should be encouraged to plant street trees, also. I am lucky - the city I live in (San Rafael, CA) has been designated an official "tree city". All of the streets were originally planted with large canopy street trees as the City expanded 100+ years ago. The street we live on was planted with black walnut trees. I have pictures of our house when it was brand new, with a flat 1/3rd acre lot, just starting to be planted by my DH's German immigrant great grandparents.

In one of the pictures you can see a black walnut street (the street was not even paved yet - it was dirt) tree also just planted - it is about 6 feet tall. That tree is still there, over 80 feet tall, and although everyone complains about the walnuts it drops in the Fall (I don't - they provide "traffic calming", as cars drive over them, and they shoot out or explode - the cars slow down!), everyone also loves it. I used to take the bus to commute, and the bus station is only 5 blocks from our house. As I would walk home in the evenings on a hot summer day, as soon as I came close to our house, in the residential area where the big street trees were, the temperature would drop 10-15 degrees just because of the shade the trees produced.

In our garden, the German great grandparents planted roses, hedges, camellias, bulbs (some of which are still coming up), lots of flowering ornamental bushes (before such things were miniaturized, - several of them survive, and they are huge, and bloom in succession), and TREES. They and they next (grandparents) generation planted apple trees, plum trees, fig trees, eugenia trees, flowering crab trees, hawthorne trees, huge oak trees, and even one of those squatty fat palm trees which were fashionable at the time (luckily the last pic we have of that one, in the middle of the front yard, was from 1925 - it is long gone). My DH's father planted several maples. Over the years, of course, some trees have been lost, but we have ended up with a lot which has large trees and/or very large bushes all around the perimeter of the lot. Lots of privacy, and welcome shade in this climate, even on a small 1/3rd acre lot.

We also have what most people think are "trash", or weed trees - bird planted privet. However, our largest privet tree (I do try and take out the thousands of privet saplings) which is at least 50 feet tall, is covered in birds all Fall - robins, and those gorgeous cedar waxwings come in large flocks. Plant a tree.

Jackie

How pleasant to hear from all my fellow tree fans. As Jackie writes, the benefits of trees, and other shade-casting plants, isn't an abstract one. The temperature drops as we near our house, too; and I've been giving thanks all summer for the wisteria pergola that shades the front of the house. Building it was one of the first jobs DH did here, and it has served us wonderfully ever since.

DH came home as soon as the doctors would release him, and immediately plunged into the time-consuming task of watering the big garden. Keeping the plants alive that we planted last winter is his self-imposed task and challenge. He gets up every morning at 4 a.m., leaves the house at 5 a.m., and waters until about 7:30, by which time the sun's well up and farm machinery is passing on the road that the hose crosses. In the evening he emerges again and takes our army of containers to fetch the water I use for the beds around the house and the shade garden, which is suffering badly this year. DH is a guy who needs to stay active, and he has a heroic approach to life. Maybe that's why he's happy.

Temperatures have gotten up to 100F the last few days, and still no rain. The weather has reached the point that I confine myself to the minimum possible of activity out of fear of heatstroke. The days are now noticeably shorter, but the effects of the change haven't yet made themselves felt in the weather. Still, next month is September! And it HAS to rain some day!

Melissa -- I hope you get rain. I hope we get rain.

I must say again that we're delighted with our Desert Willow. I don't know if you could get it where you are, but it's a great tree fro drought conditions:
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=chli2

Jeri, thanks for the reminder. Some of these arid-climate plants from the American west do very well here, where the soil is light enough (piles of rock where years of organic matter have infiltrated), for example ceanothus. I don't know whether desert willow is available. A lot of the more interesting nursery offerings come from northern Europe, and I would think they would be less interested in plants for these conditions. Good luck with the rain. It's badly needed here.

Carol, your fellow Portlanders' distribution of free potted plants is entirely delightful. It's true that I suffer from a lack of people to give plants to. My sister has done the same thing: when she's had a surplus of plants she's put them out in front of her house with a sign saying they're available for anyone who wants them. They always disappear.

Thank Heaven, temperatures are due to drop starting tomorrow, and we might even get a thunderstorm!

It does seem like Northern Europe has more interesting nurseries as a general rule. Even rose nurseries here in Italy- at least the on-line ones, which are the only ones I know-tend to all offer more or less the same roses; it's sort of a shame.

I've only been out to my land once during this week of tremendous heat; I left the house at 7PM ; I am honestly afraid of heat stroke, too,especially since there's no place to take shelter from the heat out at my land. It was very sad. First of all, the fountain on the road from which I get water wasn't running. Has it gone dry? Or has some selfish vacationer deviated the water to their own house for personal use? Sad to say, this second hypothesis is just as likely as the first. So that's pretty scary.Then, once I got out to my garden, it was so, so sad to see so many burnt leaves,everything suffering, and nothing I could do about it. I'm planning to go back on Tuesday, when at least the temperatures ought to be a bit lower,but I must say I feel pretty scared and worried that all of the hard work I've done will be rendered as naught by this merciless heat. There's not much chance for rain in my area either.

Bart, that really does sound rough in every way. I had been wondering where you got your water from. Is this a public fountain? Have they been turned off in your part of the country? The authorities did that here as a water-saving measure.

I'm putting a lot of hope in the general toughness and drought tolerance of established roses and other plants. Here there's plenty of misery to go around, but most established plants look ready to hold out for a good deal longer; and this is with exceptionally dry soil and with no rain for over five weeks, not to mention our latest heat wave. It's 38C/100F in the shade at the moment. We're all three holed up in our cavelike living room, the coolest place in the house, with fans going. Plants are tough; there have been bad droughts before, and most plants survived them. I think we'll all feel better when temperatures start to drop, and our energy levels rise correspondingly. At the moment my only desire is to watch 'The Princess Bride'. Now that's sloth.

Maybe sloth but also good taste.

Cath

What a difficult situation in a country where I imagine not too many people have central air conditioning and there's a limited water supply. It sounds as though cooler weather is on the way and I hope you'll have rain very soon.

For Ken and other tree lovers... I just encountered these illustrations by Georg Ehret in Trew's Plantae selectae, published in 1773. Here is an illustration of the Red Maple:

And boom!! Just like that they are all gone. School started the other week and all the Silver Maples were spread out to the different elementary schools in the county. All the pine trees were picked up by the Soque River Ass. to be planted in Pitts Park in Clarksville and along the river where needed. They (SRA) always need more, so it looks like I'll be busy doing trees every year until I'm gone. Something along with my roses.

Yay, Ken! A quote for you: "Only the actions of the just / Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." You're leaving a memorial, and one that literally will grow and bloom. Virginia, thanks for the illustrations.

We got some rain a couple of days ago, and so it's somewhat cooler and not quite as dry as before.