Here I am surrounded by trees and farm land, and there are no squirrels. I think this has to do with the lack of powerlines. All of the phone and powerlines in this neighborhood are underground.
When we lived in North East Portland, there was an abundence of squirrels, and I think it has to do with the fact we had lots of power/phone lines. The squirrels would go from tree to tree and cross the streets via the lines. This kept them away from cars and predators.
We have a couple nut trees in the backyard, I'm wondering what else we could to to encourage the squirrel population in this area.