Leaves are still falling from the trees in some parts around me. Some areas are faster than others even just a short distance away. These aerial photos were from an outing at the end of October when I thought there would be a few more leaves on the trees in this area along the Clinton River. As it turned out, they dropped much faster than I expected, many trees were already past peak color. But that’s ok, I also tend to like the deeper, more earthly-toned hues of late autumn.
It turned into an opportunity to look for more isolated compositions in this riverside woodland. We are fortunate to have a large number of sizeable American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) trees given their high tolerance for growing in floodplain forests. They don’t have the most glamourous autumn colors, their dinner-plate-sized leaves turning more yellowish brown. But when their leaves drop, their ghostly bark tends to stand out, especially from the air. I thought those ghostly branches made for an interesting compositional element and center of interest for some photographs. Some might even say a little spooky as this was shortly just before Halloween.
Of course, I could never visualize many of these images just walking through these woods. Having the bird’s eye view does indeed offer new perspectives. But more importantly, I think it enables you to step back and not just view them as colorful trees or interesting shapes, but as elements of an ecosystem hard at work preparing for survival through winter.
It is such an interesting process of how deciduous trees shed their leaves. They actually “slice them off” as they seal up all the little pathways to the leaf stems as if the tree is “bundling up” for the winter to come. The leaves then blanket the roots below helping keep moisture in the soil through low-humidity winter months. So it really makes you wonder how raking up leaves became such an event with humans. It is so very contrary to what the tree is trying to do to increase its chances of survival, aside from the habitat fallen leaves provide to many other creatures all at work in these ecosystems. Some of the richest soil you’ll ever find is in forests.
It is good to see “leave the leaves” movements increasing, but I don’t think city ordinances and HOAs coveting the all-mighty ecologically barren lawn have kept pace in stopping the craziness. Every autumn I still see bags upon bags of leaves sitting at the curb around the area neighborhoods, waiting to be hauled away by a big diesel truck, typically to be sold to someplace turning them into compost, to be sold back to the public. Every autumn is filled with noise and air pollution from backpack blowers. Ah, maybe the reason for pushing leaf cleanup is getting clearer. I can see the counter-campaign now …. “you leaf-lovers are job killers!”
We have done a pretty good job at separating ourselves from nature, erecting tidy green perimeters that shall not be breached. Trees certainly can and do communicate, but one has to be willing to listen.
I’m lucky for having grown up with a father who would not rake his leaves. I remember his saying something about its being a good thing for nature to leave leaves on the ground, but I suspect his policy derived equally from his tendency toward contrariness. As a kid I wasn’t so sure he was right; as an adult, I know he was.
I wonder how many parent-child conversations went the other way – with the child telling the parent they shouldn’t because of what they learned in biology class today. 🙂 (in addition to them not wanting to the chore of raking)
The other day I headed to Old Town because I wanted to get away from the landscapers and their leaf blower. I returned about three hours later only to find they were still at it. Dust and leaves blowing everywhere, even drifting out into the streets. I find it rather insane and even frustrating with the noise and fuel pollution they cause. The idea of manicured lawns, the raking of leaves is so much against how nature thrives. Nature has a much better way but we still fight against that. Even though I do not shoot the aerial images I do enjoy the birds eye view. So, please show me more.
I don’t know what the right balance is Monte. Some people will listen, others not so much. All I can do is try to coexist by example, acknowledging I am learning along the way also.
This will pretty much echo Alexander’s comment. The design of our neighborhoods and the HOA ordinances that require residents to conform have led us to a never-ending cycle of raking or blowing leaves each fall. Even those who support leaving the leaves must contribute dues for that purpose. I am unsure if there is a way to break this cycle, but I think it must start at the beginning of home and neighborhood design. Ironically, as I type this comment, I hear at least two leaf blowers at my neighbors’ homes.
I enjoy the, from a different perspective, aerial view photos, Mark.
Yeah, I know some people simply don’t have a choice. We’ve built such a culture around it, even built into ordinances, rules, etc. Then even if that isn’t there, you will have neighbors complain if a leaf blows into their freshly raked lawn. And certainly lawns have some function, just not an ecologically valuable one. I just wonder if there will ever be a shift in the other direction. (I heard a leaf blower this morning also! 🙂 )
Raking and blowing leaves is just another expression of the human disconnection from nature. Here, any new development still means that a gently sloping chaparral and sage scrub hillside is completely bulldozed and turned into neat little terraces and plateaus onto which samey-looking single family houses are crammed together. There’s nothing native left once the humans move in — just enough backyard to have a patio with a grill, but small enough so that it doesn’t cause actual work. We’re not living in and with nature anymore, we’re living apart from it, against it, replacing it. The exponential growth of human population and the way we choose to live makes it pretty much inevitable.
Wow, sorry… what a downer…
It truly is – and the whole lawn cult / marketing that goes along with it. But I didn’t always know some of these things either. It’s not like I have never raked or blown leaves. So then it makes me wonder, why didn’t I know sooner? It’s not some long-held secret that is finally exposed. I didn’t think much about climate when I was in college, I don’t even know if it was taught. So maybe this is just the actual – dare I suggest, “natural order” of things. A species may drift away from the constraints of nature only to find the point when its own survival is threatened and recognizes it must drift back.
I’m always amazed at how different things look from the air. The phenomena of some trees having dropped almost all their leaves while others close by barely have their leaves turning has also made me wonder why. I have the same thoughts about all those leaf blowers and mowers too.
That’s part of what threw me off. The leaves around my house were just peaking, then this woodland is only about 5 miles northwest of me and a lot dropped already. Each in its own time I guess.
I did get away from the leaf blower noise only to have it replaced by gunshots as there is a gun club range not far away from where I was flying. :/ Can’t win.