If A Tree Falls In The Forest...

...and there's nobody around to hear it except one little HO scale guy, does it make a sound?  Probably, but with this steam locomotive roaring past, who would hear it?

As you can see, I've finished "planting" the forest on my first hill.  There are hundreds of individual "trees" here, cut from a craft broom (photos below) purchased at Michael's, a handful painted white to represent birch trees, and a few covered in dark green turf to represent pine trees.  Very labor intensive, but I have created the stark winter look that I wanted.

A wide-angle shot:

The broom from which the trees were cut:

One final shot, just for fun, showing the produce warehouse with the forest in the background: