A Spring Phenology Walk
On March 27th, I went on a phenology walk through UVM’s campus. I examined five trees: Red Oak, White Oak, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, and Norway Maple, and discovered that all showed signs of breaking leaf buds. The Red Oak was the only tree with a recent seed drop. However, all trees appeared to be in about the same phenophase, except the Sugar Maple, which seemed a bit ahead of the game with signs of flower buds. I noticed that none of the trees had new leaf growth except for the White Oak, which had lots of dried out, brown leaves that had survived from the past year.
While exploring the National Phenology Network site, I discovered that the data on signs of first leaves or flowers collected during my phenology walk is vital to determining spring’s arrival relative to previous years. Using the Spring Leaf Index and the Spring Bloom Index, we can create maps that display when conditions associated with spring are met and at what time (National Phenology Network, 2025).