Some people dread “stick season” after the frenzy of peak foliage and Halloween.
Something Wild host Dave Anderson of the Forest Society loves trees in every season. When Grace McCulloch, of NH Audubon, introduced Anderson to Noah Kahan's recent song "Stick Season," a discussion of the charms of November ensued.
Anderson notes that 3.8 million visitors to NH were forecast to spend up to $2 billion dollars during the autumn foliage season, and now is a quieter time.
I think we could maybe lean-in a little to embrace stick season,” said Anderson.
“I've been admiring the natural architecture of the bare branches being revealed,” said McCulloch.
The trees aren’t entirely bare. The remaining beech trees and red and white oaks retain their leaves for months.
Beech and oak trees are marcescent; they retain their leaves for reasons that ecologists debate. It could be to protect the lower branches from herbivores or because of their relatively recent arrival in the New England pollen record.
Either way, McCulloch points out an under-appreciated element of stick season: low-angle sunlight reaches the forest floor once more, the interplay of light and shadows, even at mid-day, with the sun streaming in and side-lighting the forest at dawn and dusk.
“And I see some of the most beautiful sunsets in November,” she says.
If you venture out into the forest, you can often have NH woodland trails all to yourself. “There are no more biting insects. The morning frost in the grass and fog in the valleys, over warmer river water or ponds, is beautiful,” says McCulloch.
“And the cold night sky is full of stars,” says Anderson. “Stark natural beauty is the hallmark of November.”
Something Wild is a collaboration between the Forest Society, NH Audubon, and NHPR.
