Cold nips fall colors

The vicious local cold snap may have killed most of the fall color - but not the trees.

Rick Moore, service forester with the Department of Natural Resources, said the trees were going into dormancy when the historic low temperatures hit over the weekend.

"It won't have any impact on tree health," Moore said. "The buds are all tight and fine."

Cold snaps that occur in spring when trees have buds full of water have potential for killing the growth for that year, Moore said.

"By this time, deciduous trees have their sap and water going into the root system," he said.

Moore said that the leaves of the cottonwood, birch and aspen will turn a dull brown and drop off. He has no concerns about the leaves remaining to trap snow and snap off branches or limbs.

He agreed that this fall has been one for the record books. First the warm weather persisted into early October, then the weather took a 180-degree turn to record cold.

"I was driving around today and realized it killed the fall color," he said. "That made me mad."

But don't give up hope.

Moore said the larch trees still will turn. Usually, the progress of colors begins with aspen in late September, followed by cottonwoods in early October.

"Later in October is larch," Moore said. "That's the really big color show."