I went out for my phenology walk on Monday March 31st. After a weekend of cold, icy, and snowy weather, it was nice for the sun and warmth to return today and create the perfect conditions for my walk. Three of the five trees i visited, the Red Oak, the White Oak, and the Norway Maple had no real signs of phenological change going on. All of them had developed buds, but they had not begun breaking. The white oak still had a majority of its leaves from last year, though they were all dead. The Sugar Maple was very close to having its buds breaking, with a few just beginning to have the leaf tips break out. The Red Maple by far showed the most signs of spring, with almost all of its buds broken and small red developing leaves showing. It seems that in general, the maple trees were further along in their spring development.
On the NPN’s website I explored their maps that document the start of spring. Both their “Spring Leaf Index” and “Spring Bloom Index” gather data from across the country to analyze if the start of spring is happening at the “normal” time as compared to their long term average. So far this year, things have been variable, with spring arriving 13 days early in places like Boston, MA, and arriving almost 2 weeks late in the Pacific Northwest. This data collected overtime can help us here in Vermont analyze the effect climate change is having on our state. We can use comparisons to the long term average to help determine if our springs our starting earlier and therefore winters getting shorter. This can help us determine the impacts this might have on native species that rely on phenological cues for their survival.