Clearly! However, as someone else already pointed out, you're not going
to solve a drainage problem with trees.

Like I said though -- I'm not looking to solve it, just ease it a bit.
We're working on a few other things that will further ease the pain as well
as an actual solution (got an estimate on waterproofing the foundation --
hurts, but it's the only true solution available). We also want to add to
the wildlife refuge value -- lots of squirrels, rabbits, racoons, and birds
around here.

An excellent list with the promising title "Qualifiers for Quagmires:
Landscape Plants for Wet Sites" is available from the North Carolina State
University: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-646.html
Since NC is a zone south of you, so you'll need to check the plants on
their list for hardiness in your area.

An excellent general search engine for factsheets on all things
horticultural is OSU's Plants facts: http://plantfacts.osu.edu/web/

Thanks for the links.

Be sure to have your utilities come out and mark the location of existing
utility or sewer(!!) lines before you plant. Many of the trees on this
list will begin to interfere with old clay tile-based storm sewers in
pretty short order, so unless you are good pals with the Roto-Rooter guy,
you'll need to keep this in mind, as well.

Non-issue -- we're at least 100 feet away from any structures and in the
opposite direction of sewage equipment or other utilities. Now I *AM*
looking for a specimen tree to put out by the driveway. Gotta be sun
tolerant, drought tolerant, be not too agressive with its root system, grow
only up to about 20-30 feet, and not have a problem being next to a street
that sees 80,000 cars a day. Any suggestions on that 'un?!

James