Just a few days ago, I heard from my photo-scanning-client that the birch trees in Seattle are having a tough time. Apparently, they aren't really indigenous to this area and because the climate here has been warming a bit, and they aren't getting enough water, they are becoming prey to a very nasty beetle. 

My client had to postpone a meeting with me because she and some of her neighbors needed to meet with an arborist about their suffering birch trees. She told me earlier today that they were going to have to cut them all down because they were too diseased to be saved. 

So, then I come home to see the arborist up in the tree at my neighbor's house across the street, cutting down 3 dead birch trees in their back yard. Very sad.