Foliage Report # 7
October 2008
The word on the street is that autumn 2008 is a beautiful one for foliage. The color is almost always good, but this year’s dry and pleasant viewing conditions at the peak have made the orange, crimson, yellow, tan and deep browns memorable.
Most Berkshire leaves are still hanging in there, with good color; nevertheless, nature’s annual drama in the county, the un-leafing of the deciduous trees, is drawing to a close. The maples, ash and birch will appear to be dead all winter; the telltale leaves that remain on the oaks and beech will rattle ominously in the northwest winds. 
Yet some April day we will walk in the forest to see bursting buds—and hear singing birds again. Berkshire spring is brief and often uncertain, as late cold battles with early warmth, but the direction is clearly flagged by the golden green filigree that will decorate the branches.
This cycle in the Northern Temperate Zone is exciting and unique. No coniferous forest, tropical forest, or subtropical forest displays anything approaching our leaf fall. As University of Massachusetts Professor Rutherford Platt has said, “What happens in the deciduous forest is one of the most dramatic events of life on earth in terms of its sweep and swiftness, and its impact on vast populations of plants and animals.”
Visiting the color, then, such as we have in Berkshire County, is a privilege and an opportunity to try to reset your internal clock to the great cycle of the seasons.
How do you know it is fall until you have seen it, been there, experienced it?
Leaves are turning quickly, all the way south in the county. Come soon; and if not now, for certain next year.
—Your Leaf Chief
Lauren Stevens
A newspaper columnist, reporter and magazine writer, Stevens is the author of several books, including the enlarged 3rd edition of his Hikes and Walks in the Berkshire Hills and the 8th edition of The Berkshire Book. Stevens is also an environmental columnist for The Berkshire Eagle and an environmental planning consultant. He founded the Hoosic River Watershed Association in 1986 and has served on the board continually and as president several times since. Stevens taught English and environmental studies and served as Dean of Freshman at Williams College.