Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
The arrival of fall colors is never easy to predict and this year has been no exception.
Just when it appeared it might be an early fall color season, it seems as if the colors are in a holding pattern, as the bright reds and yellows haven’t appeared across the Gogebic Range.
Rainfall and air temperatures are key factors during color season.
Colleen Matula, a silviculturist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in Ashland, told Wisconsin Public Radio, “As a state, we’ve been encountering more moisture this year, a lot of rain, and that affects forest health. Like aspen and white birch, we’re seeing a lot of fungal diseases on the leaves and this may affect the yellows that we see in the fall color and the leaf volume on the crown of the tree.”
Matula said increased cloud coverage can also affect how quickly leaves change color.
Cool nights trigger color development and it has been relatively warm lately at night in the Ironwood area. Today’s high temperature was predicted at 88 degrees.
When the colors do arrive in full force, two upgraded prime vantage spots will see a lot of use this fall.
There are new viewing decks at Potato River Falls, near Gurney, Wis., and at Mt. Zion, near Gogebic Community College, in Ironwood.
A gravel road off Wisconsin 169 leads to the Potato River Falls, while the new Mt. Zion overlook is accessible by taking Greenbush Street past the upper college parking lot to the steep blacktop road that leads to the deck on Mt. Zion.
Access to both overlooks requires only short walks, although longer hikes through wooded areas are possible.
The Wisconsin DNR, in its weekly report on Thursday, said more than half of the state was reporting 50 percent color, but the Brule River State Forest in the north was only at 20 percent. Foresters there predicted the peak of fall colors during the first week of October.
“It’s a beautiful time of year for a canoe trip down the Brule or a walk through the miles of state forest trails,” said Diane Gobin, a DNR visitor services associate.
