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Landscape: The Last Rays of Summer

Posted by Phil Duggan,
North Country explorer from Amherst, New York
August 27, 2012

Habitat: Grassland, field, small shrubs and grasses. Some deciduous trees.

Although I never got close enough to examine it fully, these three trees may be American elms, or Ulmus americana. These trees are common through the United States and much of eastern Canada. Dutch elm disease is a threat looming over trees like these. A fungal disease that has ravaged elm populations in much of New York (including my hometown of Buffalo), arborists are on the watch for signs of it in the North Country.

This picture was taken on my drive up to St. Lawrence University to start my fall sophomore semester. As I drove up to Canton on Interstate 81, I thought about how summer was ending and I would soon be inside buried in work all of the time. However, a little more than an hour away from school, I stopped to catch this view just as the sun was coming down. The brightness of the sunshine and the vivid colors of the grass were a great way to personally celebrate the end of New York's warmest months of the year.