Kevin, I just saw your pics of the tree you made. It is similar to a redwood, but I'm not sure it matches anything found in the Minnesota North Woods. A cheap source for pine trees would be "bumpy chenille." I think it is available in a craft store like Micheal's or the craft section of Wal-Mart. It is green fibers on twisted wire in 2 or 3 foot long sections. It can be cut into individual trees. They are not good foreground trees, but would work to fill out a forest behind your good foreground trees. If you have some hardwood forests to model in summer, you might start with your dowels, and drill some small holes to glue in round tooth picks for branches and then glue on the ground foam to your new tree armatures. Since the branches will be dead straight, you would again need to use them behind better looking trees for the fore ground. An even easier way to make a hardwood tree is to get some mechanic's wire (safety wire) from an auto parts store or home improvement store, and cut 6-8 peices of wire about 6 inches long. Twist the wires together for about 1/2 inch or so, then separate a couple of wires and twist them together for the lower branch, separating them to individual branches part way out. As you go up the trunk, repeat the process until you have a nice tree armature. Finally wrap a bit of masking tape around the bottom 1/2 inch of the trunk and paint it a gray color to simulate the trunk. Then dip the armature in your ground foam after putting some sort of fixative (hair spray, spray glue, etc.) on it.