Warm, humid, wet summer, followed by cool, dry fall brings out the best in trees

Greater Dayton is in the midst of the leaves changing colors — and this year, the colors appear to be as brilliant as ever. Tree canopies sporting reds, yellows and oranges are approaching a peak exhibition of fall’s annual leaf showtime.

“If you live in an area that had a reasonable amount of moisture, the leaves look fabulous this year,” Mark Webber, owner of Mark Webber’s Landscaping and Mark Webber’s Arboricultural & Horticultural Consultancy in Jefferson Township, says. While the summer was wet and humid this year, in September, the onset of cold nights and dry weather “created that perfect storm of good color.”

He says red maples changed colors earlier than usual this year, along with hickory trees. “The oaks are the ones I’ve been surprised about. … The red-oak family is at least two weeks ahead, and the white-oak family is about the same. Usually, November is the month that we watch oaks change.” He says the condensed timeline has helped bring a lot of color this year.

Webber, who has been involved in the industry for more than 45 years (since high school) and founded his landscaping company in 1997, is a board-certified master arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture. The ISA says fewer than 2 percent of its certified arborists hold that distinction. He also is a registered consulting arborist through the American Society of Consulting Arborists.

As an arborist, Webber cautions people to not rake and bag their leaves. When the leaves fall, “people should mow them. Those leaves are full of nutrients. Most trees recycle about 70% to 75% of all of their nitrogen from year to year. The trees fertilize themselves. They do that by leaf litter. When the leaf litter comes down, it decomposes and rebuilds organic matter. It also rebuilds nutrients.”

The Five Rivers MetroParks and the city of Dayton’s park system offer great local venues to see and explore nature’s tree palette.

Five Rivers MetroParks manages 18 parks, the 2nd Street Market and portions of six regional recreation trails, as well as subfacilities within some of the parks and 11 conservation areas. MetroParks consists of almost 16,000 acres of open space and more than 150 miles of trails in the Dayton region. The city of Dayton operates 46 parks.

If you’re looking for a statewide perspective, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources maintains a website (https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/see-the-sights/fall-color) with videos, maps and regular updates on the fall colors.

“I would rank this, at least statewide, as one of the best fall color seasons we’ve had,” David Parrott, Ohio Department of Natural Resources fall color forester, says. “A big trigger for that is the amount of daylight — how long the days are. In general, there’s going to be a window of opportunity, which occurs about mid-October. Then you get into the environmental conditions, and there are models with tons and tons of factors that go into predicting these things,” such as when leaves develop in the spring, the quality of the growing season and fall weather. “Any huge rain or wind events can cause problems.”

Parrott also noted that much of the state — except extreme northern Ohio — was in drought conditions after the first week in September, which caused leaves to turn earlier. In central Ohio, for instance, tree leaves were changing before up north, he says.

Last year, overall, warmer temperatures continued until November, “so we didn’t have many cool nights or cool days — a lot of the leaves kept their chlorophyll until November and just died off. This year, we had the ideal fall weather — nice sunny days and cool nights.”

Every tree species is turning this year, he says. “Typically, oaks species are not that impressive when it comes to the fall foliage. I’ve been seeing a lot of oaks turning reds and yellows and different colors, which is a sign of it being such a good year. Every different tree species is bringing its A-game and playing its part.”

The state of Ohio is home to 24 state forests covering more than 200,000 acres and 75 state parks covering more than 170,000 acres. Cabins, lodges, hiking/biking trails, campgrounds, picnic areas and boating/canoeing/kayaking offer ample places to view the changing of the colors.

In the region, Ohio state parks include Hueston Woods in College Corner, Sycamore in Trotwood, John Bryan in Yellow Springs and Caesar Creek in Waynesville. The nearest state forests are Shawnee (Portsmouth), Brush Creek (Rarden), Pike (Latham) and Scioto Trail (Chillicothe).

Parrott says residents should get now and view the leaves because it could be years before such another spectacular leaf-color changing.