Snowmelt in Pagosa Springs leaves a yard looking like the forest quietly reclaimed it — needles, deadfall, whatever the wind carried down off the mesa all winter. Tree & Clear takes that on: mowing, trimming, and hauling brush and yard debris off properties that sit right up against San Juan National Forest ground. Up the Fourmile Road the pines crowd close, and keeping a place open is an ongoing negotiation with the country around it. There is a bright, uncomplicated satisfaction in carrying out the last load and seeing bare grass again with the peaks still white overhead. From there the summer can get started.