Boise is surprisingly green actually. It's on the wet side of a rain shadow, at the base of some mountains. There's also a river running through it. Idk what the boise river valley was like historically but there are tons of trees surrounding it right now, and a significant amount of tree canopy throughout the city.

The neighborhoods close to downtown have reasonably sized houses and a lot of tree cover. Still way too much sprawl and mcmansions further out of course.

[–] regul@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

Your comment actually inspired me to look this up, and I learned a very interesting fact. The etymology of the name "Boise" is from the French boisé as in the adjective form of bois (wood/forest). So "wooded" or "forested". It was the name specifically given to the "wooded" River by French trappers, because, in contrast to everything else around it, it was surrounded by trees.

The urban canopy anywhere away from the river essentially dates back to European settlement.

[–] Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago

That looks a lot better than the posted picture. It looked very baron before.