There’s a tree at the La Plata County Fairgrounds that’s turning yellowish red. There are a couple of other trees doing the same thing in various parts of town. It seems way too early for trees to change color. Does this mean we’re going to have The Big Winter? Should I start stocking up on canned foods and beef jerky? – Old Man Winter
Action Line, being an Eagle Scout from Utah, knows a thing or two about preparedness and food storage.
A ready supply of nonperishables is a good start.
The problem is that most well-meaning folks end up purchasing case upon case of food they don’t normally eat.
Thus, the cans just sit in the closet or basement until they pass the expiration date, at which time food becomes more of a hazard than the worst weather.
What happens next? People trash their erstwhile lifeline of creamed corn and Spam – then head to Walmart for more.
If you are going to be snowbound, at least have some decent delicacies on hand.
Celebrate the blizzard and power outage with a candlelit nosh of tuna filets in olive oil, fruit preserves and pâté on flax-seed crackers and lovely selection of Spanish olives and pickled asparagus.
Or you could sit there in a cold, dark house, watching it snow while gnawing on Slim Jims and stale Saltines.
The choice is yours.
All of which has absolutely nothing to do with that colorful tree at the fairgrounds.
Action Line checked in with our good friend Greg Sykes, the city arborist. He identified the specimen as an “autumn blaze” maple.
“You’ll see several autumn blazes around town. There’s one on East Third Avenue that people frequently comment about,” he said.
Autumn blaze is a cross between a silver and red maple. The hybridization resulted in a tree that turns color very early. But at a steep price.
The tree has thin bark that tends to split after a few years, “which is why the city doesn’t plant it anymore,” Greg said.
Autumn blaze is on the city’s “Unsuitable Trees” list, a rouges’ gallery of botanical thugs and ne’er-do-wells, including Siberian elms, box elder and aspen.
Check out the city’s informative tree guide at http://tinyurl.com/dgotree.
Autumn blaze also changes color when stressed, said Sue Hurlihy, manager of Durango Nursery & Supply and one of the region’s top plant pros.
“That maple is next to Main Avenue, so it gets a lot of reflected warmth from the road and sidewalk. The juices in the trunk freeze and thaw and then ‘splyzxk,’” she said, making a sound that resembled a platter of spaghetti hitting the floor.
Another stressor for autumn blaze is getting too much water early in the season, which describes this year’s weather.
But a maple turning red in early August could very well predict a hard winter.
“I’ve heard the size of mullein indicate upcoming snow depth,” the city arborist said. “There are some really tall mulleins out there.”
Meanwhile, soothsayer Sue made a bold prediction.
“This winter, Durangoans will wear silly and risqué outfits at the end of January,” she said.
Of course, we all know that’s Snowdown.
Speaking of outfits, Sue wondered aloud if Durango would see a Halloween blizzard. It’s happened in the past, so that tree could be telling us to trick-or-treat as snowmobilers.
Or maybe the tree’s just saying, “My roots are soggy, and that darn Main Avenue is giving me fits.”
Either way, autumn is blazing its way to town.
Durango’s average frost date (temps falling below 32 degrees) is Sept. 28. That’s 49 days out.
Better start shopping.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if your preparedness plan for a weather emergency doesn’t consist of the phrase, “we’ll just wing it.”
