When our family moved back to my husband's home town 16 years ago, I couldn't get enough of the lush green landscape and most of all, the trees. I had lived in Montana all my life, a place where the average annual rainfall is under 15 inches.

I had a job at one point where I spent most of the time on the road, meeting with farmers and communities for the Montana Farmers Union. There are some places in Montana where you can drive for miles and see nothing but wheat fields, the horizon and the sky. It is sort of like the ocean with its endless waves.

There a place where a single tree — the only one in 80 miles or so — has a sign reading "Lone Tree National Forest." Montanans do have a sense of humor.

Anyway, you can imagine my fascination with squirrels when we first moved here. I had never ...