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of course, you seem to have posted pictures of a golf course and specially designed nature trail, which, while beautiful, is not an accurate representation of what you'll find in the region. So most of the time you get big areas of open light, with no trees at all around, with grass growing, coupled with the pine forests. Perfectly beautiful. But not as green, and like I said, explosions of green, on every level of the tree line, that you tend to get on the east coast, where it's common to see areas where there is plenty of grass, then bushes, then maybe a medium tree, or a giant tree with very wide branches over top. That's my preference and I consider it to be much greener (green being my favorite color) than what I encountered in the PNW, though the PNW certainly does a bang up job of showing emerald green, which is beautiful enough as is. I just happen to prefer the abundance of shades of green in the east
None of what I posted on the last page is in a golf course. They are from reserves within Seattle and Bainbridge with hiking or walking trails. They are not from an arboretum. The point is to show that where people actually hike and enjoy the outdoors around Seattle is not all in dark and densely packed cedars. In fact many deciduous trees (such as bigleaf maples, paper birches, Pacific dogwoods, cottonwoods and white oak) are native to our region and found everywhere in our large forested parks (such as Discovery Park, Lincoln Park, and Seward Park, all represented in the photos from the last page).
That last picture I posted is in the alpine heights of Mount Rainier, more than a mile above sea level. The point is, you can't even get a setting of autumn wildflowers in a sea of green alpine prairie grass under snowcapped mountains like that in the East Coast if you wanted to. But you think that's ugly. Fine.
I guess it comes down to personal preferences. I lived in New England for a long time so I am well aware of the East Coast trees. To me they aren't that special, mostly scraggly northern red oak, and largely dead and brown in the winter. In fact, my favorite spot in Boston was the Arnold Arboretum, precisely because they had trees from outside the New England region, such as the tall cedars from Japan and the PNW that were not native to Boston.
This is what "super lush green" New England actually looks like for half the year.
My kids' favorite neighborhood park in Seattle this week, mid-October. Maybe it's not lush enough of green for greenfairy, but it more than satisfies my needs for year round green and vegetation. And the trees here are simply majestic at the ground level. If I really want lush green, I'll probably go to Kauai in Hawaii (5 hour flight from Seattle). I wouldn't go to Atlanta in the summer for its lush green. I see what you are saying greenfairy, but the tradeoff for that slight increase in the green spectrum isn't small (4+ months dead/brown plus incredibly muggy summers). Honestly, when we moved from Boston to Seattle, all we noticed was how much greener the Pacific NW was. It's nice that the green is year round and that there are also enough deciduous trees for some decent fall colors.
My kids' favorite neighborhood park in Seattle this week, mid-October. Maybe it's not lush enough of green for greenfairy, but it more than satisfies my needs for year round green and vegetation. If I really want lush green, I'll probably go to Kauai in Hawaii (5 hour flight from Seattle), probably wouldn't fly to Boston MA for lush green.
Speaking of Hawaii, I haven't been, but Kauai is very green, as I see from pictures. Although Diamond Head, Oahu and many leeward sides of the islands are actually brown and don't get all that much rain.
Also, bare tree branches are beautiful in their own way. Not as green as evergreens, but nice in a different way.
I think the fact of the matter is that the eastern half of the country is greener than the western half. There are parts on both sides of the imaginary halfway point that are green all year. The southeastern pine forests are one example. The PNW is another example. So what? It boils down to what it is that you prefer. I was raised in the Midwest and lived near the Ozark forests but moved west and prefer the diversity of the western biome and the underlying geology -- the exposed muscle and bones under the forested spaces. Green-ness is fine but you can't see the forest for the trees in many areas and the undergrowth and scrub trees are like a tick-infested jungle in places in the east.
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