Changes: Seasons, Landscapes, Climate

A storm front hovered over Virginia Saturday, October 7; it bathed most of the state with drenching rains and blew dry the landscape with some blustery winds that followed. This was great "site prep" for a Sunday running adventure that was going to be difficult anyway.

The weather brought the first significant leaf drop of fall and paved many of the already slippery rocks in slick coverings of magenta, carmine and chrome yellow. It activated the silt and clay in those parts of the trail prone to muddiness.

Northeasters are part of what arrives in fall. This early, weak one will be followed by others through winter. They most strongly manifest themselves in the often heavy snows, gale force winds and heavy beach erosion of February and March storms. Last year, nor'easters continued passing up the coast into early May. Were they yet another manifestation of the stronger and perhaps more frequent storms we are to expect from our changing climate?

Fall change at its best however is about changing leaves, birds and monarch butterflies in migration and much more. Together with our year 'round residents, all manner of birds were actively feeding along the Blue Ridge early that morning. Kinglets, both ruby-crowned and golden crowned, were especially active, hover-gleaning insect eggs and spiders still inactive in the early morning fog.

Change too was apparent and less kind in the broader landscape. There was some reason for optimism, but perhaps I just needed to find something good in evidence. Most landscape changes observed were obvious and upsetting but only perhaps to someone who has hiked them for 30 years. Most disturbing to me is that all of these changes I saw and those related to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we can anticipate, were brought about by our actions.

Running the ridges and intervening stream valleys on Sunday took us through ridge top forests that are now chestnut oak, red maple and black tupelo. Twenty years ago, large changes began when the introduced gypsy moth ravaged the more diverse oak forests and left behind an altered landscape and fewer food alternatives for the wildlife of the forest.

Perhaps twenty five years ago, the wooly adelgid, an introduced Asian pest insect, began to kill off our native hemlocks that cloaked most of our mountain stream valleys. This tree offered nesting and feeding habitat for blackburnian and Canada warblers and ruffed grouse. They cooled our trout streams. They perfumed the forest for acres around. The hemlocks and habitats they dominated are now gone or changed much for the worse-- in just a quarter century.

The continuing bad news of landscape change includes the loss of most of our flowering dogwoods, succumbing to the introduced dogwood anthracnose. They no longer provide some of the best food for our migrating thrushes and other birds.


The climate changes that we see, in storm strength, drought persistance, higher temperatures and both coastal and inland flooding, are new agents of stress that our habitats and especially the trees that give them their bones, can't tolerate. Maybe what we've seen in the recent past is in part due to climate change already taking its toll on our ecosystems.

We did find that one bright spot. Nuts!