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I've been out of the country all month and will be returning home on October 2. I've been wondering how the fall colors are doing. I hope there's some red left when I get home.
The color seems to be coming on a bit slow in the lakes region. I was out hiking all morning around lake Wini & it's still very green. We had a lot of rain since the spring.....how that affects the colors I'm not sure. Things should pop in the next several days.
The color seems to be coming on a bit slow in the lakes region. I was out hiking all morning around lake Wini & it's still very green. We had a lot of rain since the spring.....how that affects the colors I'm not sure. Things should pop in the next several days.
Above average soil moisture usually means trees change color a bit later compared to conditions that are a bit drier than average.
I am going to play devil's advocate here and suggest that some of you may be exhibiting a little bit of an entitlement attitude. Nature does not owe the human race red foliage. If it happens wonderful, if not then so be it.
I personally would rather have green all year round. That is why I nurture any evergreen seedlings that sprout on my property and give them every advantage I can unless said seedlings are on the drain field or too close to the house or driveway.
My tendency is to chalk this up to the same phenomenon that causes people to reminisce about the "old days" where they "walked uphill both ways to school in 5 feet of snow."
I was in NH in 2010 and saws lots of bright red foliage everywhere. Here in southern MI we have a decent population of sugar maples (not quite like New England) and some of them are turning bright red as we speak. If I am seeing reds here, I have a hard time believing that they won't be showing up in NH. The climate here in southern MI is a tad warmer than most of NH, if I am not mistaken (not as cold at night, and lots of cloud cover due to Lake MI). My point is that, aside from climate change, the conditions here are not as ideal for foliage, and we are still getting bright reds.
Took a ride along the Kanc this weekend. It was beautiful, as usual, but the colors were actually much more muted than in my Central region, despite that area being further north. Coming back we rode down 16 and 28, along the eastern side of the lake, and I was surprised most trees along there were green.
When comparing photos from then to the same trees this year - the color was spectacular in 2010 with lots of brilliant color.
My trees have peaked or gone by. Was driving down route 16 yesterday and Rochester had a lot of color in the swamps. Some reds....a couple really nice ones, but mostly russet, maroon. Going west on 101, the swamp maples were bare naked between exits 3 and 4.
Looking at videos from the summit cam on Cannon Mtn, it's clear there is a lot of color, just not red....and a lot of naked trees.
We drove from southern NH to mid Maine yesterday and I will say it was not as pretty as it has been some seasons. There were a few very nice yellow that showed up nicely against the evergreens but very little red and a bit of pale orange. The funny thing was it was nice on the southern part but not good more north. It's been probably 4 years or more now since we have had outstanding color.
Newdaawn is right - the past several years have seen very disappointing foliage seasons. I'm starting to wonder if anyone even remembers what a good foliage year looks like! It's not simply a memory trick, as I have photographic evidence of the poor color versus years past.
2007 and 2008 were very good foliage seasons. 2009 had a more scattered onset of colors without a uniform 'peak' in many areas, but the overall color quality was better than any year I've seen since. I wasn't in NH in 2010, but I've heard from people who said the foliage was disappointing. 2011 was the worst foliage season I can ever remember. 2012 was a slight improvement, but still noticeably sub-par.
2013 is shaping up similarly so far. NH experienced a wetter-than-average summer with temperatures also on the high side; and the significantly higher-than-average temperatures this week are not going to do the foliage any favors. Warmer and wetter weather has been the recipe for disaster over the past couple of years.
There is still hope for good foliage seasons in the future, but they will be less frequent than in the past. As buck naked alluded to, our maple population is predicted to decrease up to 60% by 2100 as the warming climate forces these hardwoods farther north.
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