BartK
A lot of this is tied to population density. There's less land in Europe per person than in the US. Many people don't actually realize that some US States are larger than European nations and much of the western US is forest land or national parks. Some of our national parks are bigger than European nations.
Here in the coastal mountains, what we have are oak trees and scrub chaparral which grows green in the spring/early summer and dies by August. The native grasses cure on the stem and provide winter feed for deer and other wild herbivores.
The terrain is often rugged too. Unfortunately this means the dead vegetation is fuel for wildfires set by arsonists when the seasonal winds blow and fire fighters can't get to it very easily.
Which is what the world is seeing play out in Los Angeles right now.
I vote against a political discussion forum. I'm a member of a couple of them and the discussions often get heated and that carries over into non-political areas of those particular websites. It's just not a good mix. Instead I'd rather see short posts if they're about what's happening when it affects the members and then move on with more piano stuff.
Not that I'm against talking about California, it's beautiful here. For those of you in Europe, it's very much like Spain and Portugal. Which is why the Spanish originally claimed and settled the land - it was almost like home.