16. Placerville, California is the site of the US Forest Service's western station, and was responsible for what historic set of trees?
From Quiz Gifts of the Earth: Trees
Answer:
The Moon Trees, germinated from seeds taken aboard Apollo 14 in 1971.
Astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former US Forest Service smoke jumper, carried 500 seeds of 5 different tree varieties in his personal kit when he orbited the moon in control of the command module. During decontamination procedures back on Earth, the canisters exploded, and it was assumed that the seeds were no longer viable. Nevertheless, the mixed seeds were sent to Placerville, and also to the USFS southern station in Gulfport, Mississippi, and remarkably almost all germinated.
During the nation's Bicentennial in 1976, many of the seedlings were gifted to several significant sites, such as government buildings, universities, NASA facilities, and to foreign entities including Brazil and Switzerland, and presented to the Emperor of Japan.
Of the other possible answers, as far as I know seeds of the Japanese Maple were not part of the surrender agreement between the US and Japan, nor have scientists been genetically engineering trees for birds.
Believe it or not, there ARE albino redwoods. However, to survive and grow, the tree needs to graft its roots to a normal redwood's roots, which makes it a parasite. A non-parasitic albino redwood cannot survive. (babsr)