By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Fall is here and with the colder weather also comes the beauty of the leaves on trees changing colors.
Forester Lonnie Messbarger with the Missouri Department of Conservation in St. Joseph says if you are looking to see the fall colors in trees right now is the peak time.
"We've had fall color for several weeks now, starting with the dogwoods and the sumac and the Virginia creeper vines, and then we move where cottonwoods and hackberries they'll turn yellow and other trees (like) walnuts," Messbarger tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And then right now we're into mostly oaks and hickory that's kind of the last batch of trees that turn in the fall."
Messbarger says people's best bet to see some of the best fall colors is along the Missouri River floodplain in the Loess Bluffs between North Kansas City to just past the Iowa state line.
Messbarger says the types of color you will see in the trees depends on not just the type of tree, but also the weather.
"But most of the time everybody really enjoys the oranges and the reds sometimes of sugar maple in the Loess hills again, and then the majority of the oaks will turn a deep red, almost purplish, brownish color, it kind of varies again" Messbarger says. "But right now, that's what you're seeing is the oaks and the brown and the orange."
Messbarger explains that normally sugar maples can produce some of the most vibrant colors, but this year due to the weather they won't be as bright.
Messbarger says it's always a big thing for people to get out and see the fall colors.
"Whether they get out and actually drive around, there's a lot of those folks, and then some of them just want to know," Messbarger says. "And of course, you can't be anywhere around this part of the country without seeing fall color, either in town when you're doing your thing or going out for a drive."
And Messbarger says the department even has a website that shows people a report on the fall colors in their region
"So, we're in the northwest region, we go all the way from St. Joe to Chillicothe and mostly down to Kansas City and up the Iowa Line so we try to report the current fall color and then do a little predicting on that website we have," Messbarger explains.
You can find a link to the fall color maps HERE