‘It’s unlikely we’ll see the beautiful bright colours’: Fall foliage comes early

Sarah Plowman has more on how dry conditions in Atlantic Canada is causing an early colour change for trees in the region.

Fall foliage could be less colourful this year as trees in the Maritimes are changing colours and losing leaves earlier due to the dry conditions.

Photographer and drone operator Ellen Tramley Seymour has already noticed.

“In my uneducated eye, they (trees) seem to be changing a little faster,” she said.

Tramley Seymour is right -- leaves are changing colour and falling earlier this year, according to Anthony Taylor, associate professor in the faculty of forestry and environmental management at University of New Brunswick.

Typically, when temperatures begin to drop in September and early October, trees begin to turn colour with lots of pinks, oranges and reds he explained. But this year, trees in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are starting to turn colour already and there’s a lot more yellow.

“This is being driven by is the significant drought that the Maritimes has been experiencing since July,” he said.

Taylor highlighted how trees rely on water to carry out photosynthesis and nutrient transport. Without water for prolonged periods, they begin to shut down photosynthesis and trees will stop producing green chlorophyl.

“What that does is it begins to unmask some of the other pigments that are in the leaf. Some of the yellow carotenes and xanthophylls. And that’s why you’ll begin sort of this yellow coloration that’s occurring across the province.”

According to a Government of Canada analysis, conditions across the Maritimes in July ranged from severe drought to abnormally dry, depending on the region. Link:

“It kept getting drier as the summer went,” said Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

Hubbard points out how the region has experienced between 40 to 75 per cent of the rain it would typically receive. ECCC tracks rainfall amounts for communities. Greenwood, Nova Scotia for example, had its driest August ever, Hubbard said.

“There’s been months of the past, summer that have been some of the driest ones those areas have seen,” he said.

While a photographers’ ideal fall may include a brilliant kaleidoscope of colours, Taylor expects colours to be more muted this year.

“It’s unlikely we’ll see the beautiful bright colours that you would see in an ideal fall,” he said.

Bright colours or not, Tramley Seymour intends to make the best of it.

“If it’s muted then go early in the morning, a golden hour or in the evening and get that golden colour,” she said.

Trees in Fredericton

Richard Hall, a forester with the City of Fredericton, said his team has noticed a lot of trees have dropped their leaves already.

“Not common this time of year,” he said, adding the trees quickly changed from green to brown.

“It kind of skips the beautiful fall colours when, when trees do this.”

He said his team is closely monitoring newly planted trees because the stress on those trees is probably more pronounced.

The city has also received a lot of calls from people concerned their trees are dead because leaves have dropped.

“A lot of the leaves have dropped. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that the tree is dead,” he said.

His team is closely monitoring the condition of newly planted trees.