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2010 fall foliage prediction by Jeff Foliage

Winter moth may take a bite out of tourism

by Jeff "Foliage" Folger

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Credit: Jeff Folger

Credit: Jeff Folger

The last leaf on this tree.

Credit: Jeff Folger

I think this relative new tree (the Linden) is one of my favorites. It produces great color and this year lasted into December before fading away...

Greetings Leaf Peepers! 6 Days until winter means 6 days of fall left!

Well I don't know how many of you found this year's fall foliage season but from my emails everybody was very happy with what they found from peepers in Israel to Wisconsin, everybody was happy. I myself give this year a 7 on the Jeff Foliage scale. The rain was for me a deciding factor and let's face it; given the choice to photograph on a sunny afternoon or a rainy one, most of us will take the sunny one.

Butch Lombardi who is very active on the fall foliage fan page on Facebook has posted many pictures where he admits, it was drizzling or worse snowing and he got wonderful pictures in spite of the weather. Check his site out at East Bay Images. Also there are many others and if you send me a link to an online gallery I will try to post it here. (note) It has to be to a permanent gallery and can have no advertising! Send your link to jeff.foliage@gmail.com.

2010 fall foliage prediction!

I always quantify my predictions with should be and could be and this prediction is no different. (So don't buy airline tickets based on this prediction) In reading the Old Farmer's Almanac this year I calculated about a 60% accuracy rating so based on this I probably have a 10% accuracy with what follows? :- ) For full details pick a copy of the Old Farmer's Almanac (click on the link to check out their site and you can even subscribe). OK, due to a slightly dryer year in 2010 (Yaaa!) and also cooler (Booo!) I predict a normal start to the season but it will be shorter than this year's (2009) but it may be much brighter (Yaaa!). So I think 2010 has a chance of being a great foliage year... Now the bad news...

The Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) had a really good year in 2009 and it looks like it will wreck havoc with the maples and oaks in various parts of New England. This little bugger has made it onto the Boston news and in the papers several times in the past few weeks while it came out in record numbers during its breeding season. Right at the edge of Salem woods where several of my favorite maples and oaks reside, Lisa and I observed thousands of the males (if not more) fluttering at the edge of the forest. If you would like to read more click on the paragraph.

Check out our Facebook page @ www.facebook.com/yankeefoliage and if you want to see won the fall foliage contest for this year visit the fall foliage contest page.

Jeff "Foliage" Folger

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Click here to follow my foliage reports in real time on twitter? Visit my Facebook fan page for Vistaphotography