WE WIN SOME AND WE LOSE SOME

NORTHERN WISCONSIN FALL COLOR NOW AT ABOUT 75%

SUMAC AT 100%

Monday, 8:30 AM.  51 degrees F at the ferry dock, 47 on the back porch.  Wind NNW, calm with light gusts.  The sky is mostly clear, the humidity 70%.  The barometer is rising, now at 30".  Highs today and the balance of the week will be around 50, with mostly clear skies and no rain.  Nice fall weather.
   Looking for an excuse to get out of Bayfield on a crowded Apple Fest Sunday, we spent the better part of the day traveling to Spooner, Wisconsin, which is southwest of Bayfield about 100 miles. It was a beautiful fall day,  the northern Wisconsin leaf color  at 75% or better, according to my estimation.  Poplars, sugar and red maples , ash trees and most shrubs are at or near their peak, with oaks beginning to color up and tamaracks still green.  Next week should be fall color at its best in the Northland.
   The greater purpose of the trip, however, was to try to get a photograph of a large American Chestnut tree, Castanea dentata, reportedly growing at 214 Elm Street in Spooner.  I have been corresponding with a Russian arborist, Ivan Ivanovich Amelin, from Novosibirsk, in central Siberia, who is attempting to grow the trees in the Altai mountains.  I sent him seeds from some of our Bayfield trees on Friday, and he is interested in the Spooner tree as well, which he heard about through the American Chestnut Society.
   We found the address, but no chestnut tree. If it was there once it no longer exists, and I suspect it was cut down recently and the stump removed, as there was new grass planted in the front yard.  I looked around in the neighborhood, and there are no chestnut trees in the immediate area.
   We win some and we lose some.
   As I learn more about Mr. Amelin's research I will pass it on in the Almanac, along with any relevant comments I may have.  It's always good to have a new interest, and a new tree friend.