I really wish trees were more dynamic.
Those arn't simple changes from a coding perspective, but there's a mod that does something similar anyway.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/191599-v10-nature-overhaul-v17/Basically any gameplay, graphics, or sound/music change you want, there's a mod for it. And if you really insist that it must go into the vanilla game, post it on jebs twitter account. Note that most "good" ideas, are stupid, and insanely complicated from a coding perspective, which is why they are better left to third parties.
Hmm.. been waiting for quite a few hours for the server to get back up, any word on it?
Qaz said to leave a message on his irc when it's down, but idk what channel he uses.
It's been down for over 24 hours now though, so he must have noticed...idk what's going on.
EDIT:Noticed most peeps in this thread don't know much about mods, so I'll list some of the better ones to play around with.
Better Than Wolves
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-10-better-than-wolves-aka-happy-fun-time-mod-v348-upd-jan-7/Buildcraft
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/682920-100-buildcraft-2211-310-blueprints-pipes-quarry-auto-crafting-building-engines/Zeppelin mod
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/488434-100-zeppelin-023-wip/Better Then Buildcraft
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/910330-10-better-then-buildcraft-v-103-upd-jan-8/Turn off bedrock fog
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/832077-100-fog-reducer/Mo Creatures
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/81771-v100-mo-creatures-v31-with-goats-jellyfish-mantarays-and-stingrays/Industrialcraft
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/604928-181-industrialcraft%C2%B2-v115/Redpower
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/365357-100-eloraams-mods-redpower-2-prerelease-4c/Weeping Angels from Dr Who
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/694829-100-weeping-angels-v153-28-dec/The top 3 mods are my most highly recommended ones, they add a lot more automation to the game so you can build complex factories to auto produce items and farming. Better Than Wolves has a more medieval feel that fits in the best with vanilla mineraft, buildcraft is more the industrial age so doesn't fit in quite as well. If you both BTW and BC in your game, you need to use the Better Then Buildcraft compatibility mod else they won't work.
The zeppelin mod lets you create you own ship, barge, boat, spaceship etc, out of blocks; then make it fly
Industrialcraft does the same thing as Better Than Wolves and Buildcraft, but with high tech unbalanced stuff that definately doesn't fit in...but you may want that idk. IC is compatible with BC, but not with BTW and never will be.
Bedrock fog is self explanatory, and mo creatures adds a lot of different and interesting passive and hostile mobs to the world (you may want to turn some off, there's a lot), and weeping angels are just freaking epic.
Redpower...personally I don't recommend that, but I put it there for the people who can't use redstone to save their lives. Basically, redpower goes and throws complex circuits out the window, combining logic gates into single blocks and letting you place redstone up walls and on ceilings. So it's redstone on easy mode basically.
