Fall foliage will soon color region
Fall officially arrived last Tuesday, and I noticed the first real blush of autumn colors along the ridges of our area on Thursday morning.
It won’t be long before those same ridges will be awash in the bronze of the beech and hickories, the golden yellow of the poplars, and the scarlet, orange and reds of the maples and oaks. As a photographer who bought a new camera earlier this year, I’m hoping the fall foliage will be a good show this year.
Here in Penns Woods, deciduous trees grow their new leaves each spring, and those leaves become individual food factories for the tree throughout the spring and summer. Leaves derive their green color from the pigment of an amazing substance called chlorophyll. Through an extraordinary chemical reaction, chlorophyll absorbs the energy from sunlight and uses it to transform carbon dioxide and water into sugars that the tree uses for food via the process known as photosynthesis.
Most green plants rely on chlorophyll and photosynthesis for their existence. As fall approaches, leaves stop their food-making processes, the chlorophyll breaks down, allowing other pigments present in the leaves to show their color. The first of those, known as carotenoids, tend to be mostly yellow to orange in color and some of the first to change.
Another group of pigments, known as anthocyanins, produce the bright reds and purples in fall foliage. Most anthocyanins are produced in leaves later in autumn in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells. Weather-related factors, such as rainfall, sunlight and temperature, can have some effect on the intensity and duration of fall foliage colors, but photoperiod is the determining factor of when leaves make their fall transition.
Photoperiod is the scientific term used for the relative length of daylight and darkness throughout the year. Photoperiod is also the trigger for many of the remarkable transitions in nature, and fall foliage is certainly one of those. The shorter days of autumn start the biochemical processes in a leaf that ultimately cause the seasonal color changes.
Low temperatures can enhance the formation of anthocyanin pigments that produce the bright reds in maples and other species, but an early frost can weaken the red color. Rainy or overcast days sometimes tend to increase the overall intensity of autumn colors.
CWD Update
Most deer hunters in our region don’t need to be reminded that Blair and Bedford counties had the unwanted distinction of being ground zero for the first detected cases of chronic wasting disease in wild deer in Pennsylvania back in 2012. Since then, CWD has been detected in wild deer throughout virtually every county in southcentral Pennsylvania.
To combat the spread of CWD, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has established three Disease Management Areas and imposed special restrictions within them. Some of those restrictions included prohibiting any feeding wild deer, making it illegal to use or possess any urinebased attractants for hunting deer and prohibiting the transportation of certain high-risk parts of hunter-harvested deer outside the boundaries of the DMA.
Although there has been no evidence to date that humans can contract CWD, but as a precautionary measure, hunters are advised not to consume the meat of any deer that tests positive for CWD. To monitor the spread and prevalence of CWD, to better facilitate hunters with having their deer tested for CWD, and to properly dispose of high-risk parts of deer they harvest, the PGC has established a network of head-collection bins, high-risk parts dumpsters, cooperating deer processors and taxidermists throughout the current DMAs.
To help hunters locate these resources, the PGC has introduced a special interactive map on its website. This map shows the boundaries of the three current DMAs, all of which have expanded again this year due to new cases of CWD detected, and the location of the new CWD DMAP units for this season. Cooperating processors and taxidermists within the DMAs are also shown on the map. Hunters who process their own deer can locate high-risk parts dumpsters to properly dispose of the carcass. During the deer seasons, PGC personnel collect random samples from some deer taken to cooperating processors for CWD testing.
If a deer from this sampling tests positive for CWD, the hunter who took the deer will be notified. Hunters should not assume, however, that any deer taken to a cooperating processor will be tested. If you want to know your deer is tested for CWD, you should take the head to a collection bin with the DMA. The location of the head collection bins is also shown on the map. Properly tagged deer heads deposited in the bin will be tested with the results made available to the hunter within three weeks.
To find the map and for complete information about CWD in Pennsylvania, go to the PGC website, pgc.pa.gov. On the left side of the homepage, go to the “Quick Clicks” box and click on the “chronic Wasting Disease” link. One more CWD reminder for Pennsylvania hunters who harvest a deer, elk, mule deer or moose out-of-state is no high-risk parts from animals taken from areas where CWD has been detected can be brought into Pennsylvania.
The parts ban affects hunters who harvest deer, elk, moose, mule deer and other cervids in: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming; as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. High-risk parts include: the head (including brain, tonsils, eyes and any lymph nodes); spinal cord/backbone; spleen; skull plate with attached antlers, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; cape, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; upper canine teeth, if root structure or other soft tissue is present; any object or article containing visible brain or spinal cord tissue; unfinished taxidermy mounts; and brain-tanned hides.