tinan, I doubt that noise is as easily abated by plantings as you may think. CALTRANS engineers are experts and even they have a hard time abating sound. Sometimes sound-deflecting walls are built only to find the sound, instead of being deflected upwards, goes in unexpected directions and creates headaches for another neighborhood which previously had no problems at all. Land topography has more impact on noise deflection than anything else. If you walk along the Bodega Head trail, at certain sections the ocean noise is thunderous; yet 50' away without any change except for a shift 10' inland and a protruding cliffside edge, the wave noise drops by two-thirds. No trees or level change are involved at all; it is all topographic noise deflection. Take a side path below cliff level and suddenly you can't hear any ocean noise, everything is silent. Certainly trees "en masse" will deflect noise. But you'd have to own a half-acre lot to plant enough trees to mass thickly enough to create a viable deflection wall on a level property. Walk around a freeway underpass, and you'll probably find that in certain spots almost underneath the freeway (it needs to be solid, not the type with separate roadways) the car noises stop. Sometimes they merge into a deep booming noise that is more pressure than noise, a rather odd feeling. All of us live in a geographically hilly area. This means that cell phone reception gives carriers nightmares and that noise from our maze of freeways travels upwards and outwards in a variety of directions, funneled by geography and climate. I can occasionally hear train whistles from the Amtrak lines two miles west - but not always, only at certain times. If sound were a simple thing, I would ALWAYS be able to hear them - the tracks don't move, and neither does my house (unless there's a rupture in the Hayward Fault, LOL). But I can't, even though I know that the trains blow their whistles at the same crossing twenty times a day.

I used to be a strong proponent of fencing until I learned that fencing not only kept the deer out but in many instances fencing had an adverse impact on many other creatures also, almost no matter how small an area was fenced, i.e., you might inadvertently cut off a box turtle from a food source. Fencing a larger area could cut off other creatures from their regularly traveled pathways as well as food sources. When other creatures of the land are excluded from an area, then the benefits those creatures bring to that section of land are also excluded. Further, excluding deer from one's property is really a selfish act as it only drives them to someone else's property. Out here where I live, an effort is being made to prevent landowners from fencing off large sections of their properties and especially from having fencing within a certain distance of a road. When fencing is erected close to the road, it serves only to increase the number of deer-car collisions, causing possible injury and death to humans and, of course, an increase in insurance costs. (I believe I read someplace of a driver who'd been injured quite badly in a collision with a deer and was suing a property owner who had a fence installed close to the road - unfortunately, I can't find a link.) While many may not like it, the best way to control deer is by culling the herds, through hunting. In the northern part of the state, coyotes have begun to hunt deer in packs, just like their wolf ancestors, and I have heard that in some places that hunting is keeping the deer population levels down. (The coyotes here in the East, unlike coyotes in the west, have wolf DNA in them, and seem to be larger than western coyotes.) Of course, there are now those people who are screaming for all the coyotes to be killed.....I'm not going there. :-) By far, the best product I have found and I found it only last year is Deer Scram. I had deer walking along my dog fence nibbling shrubs as they went until about 8 weeks ago I put down a "barrier" of Deer Scram. The deer have not been along the fence since then - not one track in the snow. Deer control is a thorny problem with no easy solutions, as we all know.

A forest will choke out a thicket, I often recomend that fruit and nut trees be planted on purpose, so that we lock up carbon and produce food for ourselves, and chocke out the brush plants that are unpleasent to walk through. When you go on a hike along a tail it seems that you are always either bordered by clearing/lawn or by a thicket, but once you break through that thicket you can useually travle quite quickly and easily and have plenty of space to move about. The main reasonfor removing trees and brush historicly wasn't to make things more pleasent, it was to open up land for agricultural use. with a field we can grow staple cerial grains, or legumes, or use it as pasture for animals, while some trees may provide seasonal food for some critters it takes alot of work to survive off of them year round (and trust me when I say thing, willow does not taste that good) . Our modenr day lawns were not contrived from thin air, you need to look at were they came from to understand how they fit in. Lawns are popular mainly in the south (sure, lots of people like them, but in the south they are sick for them) the south had a large portion of its caucasian inhabitants come from scotland (the southern drawl is very closely related to the scots accent) in schotland they have huge green field that are kept down to a few inches all summer long, this is because there is alot of rain and people raise sheep. Now, in the south there isn't as much water in the summer, and there aren't as many sheep, but people still liked the look of home so a lawn with mowers and irrigation is what they came up with.

Dragon, there are several statements in your post that I take issue with. First Ding Xinoping has simply toned down the anti capitalist rhetoric and suggested a few token human rights changes.Unions are not permitted, news is rigidly censored, anyone complaining about working conditions gets a quick trip to a reeducation work camp. Chairman Mao is still regarded as a God like figure in China, his philosophy is widley taught, required in all universities. If you go over a list of the governing body you will find that Maoist hold a large percetage of the high decision making positions and their agenda for Communist world domination has not changed, only toned down a bit. Next Chinese made electronic devices are not purchased because other nations are too lazy to produce them, they are purchased because of Chinese ultra cheap labor and a devalued currency system that allows production for a fraction of the cost else where. Copy right and patent laws are ignored, there is no pollution control, safety and working conditions rival 19th century sweat shops. To, put it simply no way can free independent labor in any western country compete with an endless supply of labor working under forced conditions for slave wages and an unrealistic devalued currency system. China has an endless supply of manpower and it is being used to build up the nations treasury. Huge amounts of foreign bonds and holding are being amassed. Human sweat, horibble working conditions, low wages and a devalued currency are being used to produce super cheap products, to dump on the world market and bring in cash for communist expansion.Tell 1800 workers from a South Carolina furniture plant who lost jobs when their company moved plant to China, that they were lazy and did not want to work. The company owner admitted plant was moved to China because even though their workers were effecient, loyal, the plant could not compete with cheap Chinese products being imported by competitors. Despite concessions by the union, maximum efficency from the work force, tax abatement from the local and state governments the company had to move to China or go broke. 1800 workers, many with years of loyal service were out of a job. Not because they were lazy, or put out an inferior product, or demand exhorbitant wages, but because they could not compete with products made jn plants where skilled craftsman are paid $60 per month.. The other statement I take issue with is one about illegal alien workers in the US. A great myth is being circulated about these people only taking jobs not wanted by any one else. Nothing is further from the truth. While some do work in low paying cleaning and agricltural jobs, many others are hired in skilled good paying crafts such as painting, roofing , carpentry and plumbing. They are hired in these jobs for one reason, greed. They can be paid less, paid in cash off the books, not carried on workman's compensation insurance policies. no retirement money need be contributed. OSHA and EPA safety regulations can be ignored, plus they are worked overtime and paid at the regular rate,or not at all. These workers can't complain to any one because they are illegal and fear deportation. I don't claim to have all the answers, however, we better wake up and do something, All is not sweetness and light where China s concerned, the Chinese have simply toned down their anti capitalist rhetoric, achieving Mao,s goal of communizing the world is still on the agenda. Just easier to do it economically than by force. I also agree no country is perfect, but some are much higher on the scale than others.