Rio Communities sits up on the mesa with the river bottom laid out below and Belen just across the bridge, which means the wind gets here first and leaves last. The trees in these yards were planted by hand and coaxed along — elms, pines, mulberries, each one a small argument against all that open ground. Pruning keeps them sound through the middle; trimming keeps the canopies off roofs and out of the lines. When one dies back past recovery, removal is done down to a flush stump and clean ground. After a summer storm rolls off the Manzanos, cleanup clears what came down, so the yard looks like nothing happened.