Friday, April 11th
I noticed that all of the trees had buds, but the overall trend was a lack of bud breakage. The only tree with bud breakage was the Sugar Maple. None of the trees had any flowers, but the Red Maple did have flower buds signaling blooming soon! The only tree with identifiable leaves was the White Oak. The leaves were dried up and dispersed at the bottom. Each of the trees were in the same phenophase without a great amount of new growth showing the promise of screen.
Looking at the Spring First Leaf Index and Spring First Bloom Index on NPN’s website, the country’s leaf and blooming trends haven’t quite reached Vermont yet. The growing trend though is moving North, so it’s likely leaves and blooms will be seen soon in the coming weeks. I also noticed an abundance of red on the map, signaling the early arrival of spring. This has a direct relationship with climate change increasing temperatures, causing plants to bloom earlier.
