While many Americans think that the federal government in Washington has ballooned out of hand, employment figures indicate that this has not been the case. There has been significant growth in government employment, but most of this has been at the state and local levels.
As a result, the Tigris is more subject to catastrophic flooding than the Euphrates. Annual flooding usually results in the Tigris rising from 4Â½ to 9 feet, with a record rise of 27 feet in 1954.
The river birch's (Betula nigra) common name gives a clue about this graceful tree's needs. It's a thirsty, wetlands-loving tree with slender, shimmery trunks and slightly drooping branches. As long as you provide the river birch with enough water, and probably even if you don't, its roots will not damage your house. The river birch is a tree for elven glades and fairy forests, the multiple, slender trunks draped in silver, satiny bark that splits to allow the nut-brown inner bark to peep through.