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Martis Mystery

  • Melampsora on Aspen, Martis Creek Meadow (9/23/20) Clayton Peoples
  • Martis Creek Meadow (9/23/20) Clayton Peoples

There’s a mystery occurring along Martis Creek (CA-267) between Kings Beach and Truckee.

Aspen that populate the meadow, near the remnants of an old cabin, are deceivingly orange. From a distance, they appear to be peaking, but they’re not. They’re diseased.

This meadow is visited often, mostly because of the cabin. It’s a popular place for portraiture (weddings, graduations) due to the distressed character of the cabin. The turnout is so popular that its once-small parking lot has been expanded to park several motor vehicles.

In autumn, particularly on early October weekends, the lot is filled with cars; a parade of people stroll out to the cabin or one of the groves to stand amidst the aspen as they rustle in the breeze.

Reno color spotter Clayton Peoples was there yesterday and drew the same conclusion I had a couple of weeks earlier when I visited. Martis Creek Meadow is Just Starting, but its leaves are frosted a dull orange by the leaf rust called Melampsora medusae.

Martis Creek Meadow (9/23/20) Clayton Peoples

Mystery Solved: Melampsora russ afflicts aspen, poplar, cottonwood, willow and several specie of pine. Orange, powdery pistules on the backside of the leaf cause the coloration which is an infection resulting from continuous moisture being on the leaf for a period of from two to 24 hours, the US Forest Service explains. Sadly, considering its popularity, this grove has been tormented by afflictions.

Despite the Halloween-colored contagion, Clayton remains optimistic and adds, “not all is lost: many leaves look quite healthy and are likely to turn in the next week or two.”

He estimates peak is still two weeks off at this location, but considering the pandemic and national forest closures occurring south of Sonora Pass, this location does offer the promise of color at North Lake Tahoe and a reason, he writes, to “get out on a crisp clear morning and walk among the trees,” reminding us all that despite our troubles, “many things are proceeding in their normal course despite the things going on in the world around us.”

  • Martis Creek Meadow (CA-267) – Just Starting (0-10%)
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Lackluster

Fremont cottonwood and pepper berries, Davis (9/16/20) Philip Reedy

This week, Philip Reedy, Michelle Pontoni and I separately explored the noxious outdoors before the thermal inversion lifted. At the time, an oppressively dense haze from numerous California wildfires hung over California, keeping the Sun’s rays from brightening the landscape.

Instead, it draped a lackluster pall across the scene.

In Davis, Reedy found fallen Fremont cottonwood leaves resting among pepper berries and upon redwood branches, quiet beauty in an otherwise moribund atmosphere.

  • Scrub Quaking Aspen, South Lake Tahoe Bike Path (9/15/20) Michelle Pontoni

Pontoni found a more encouraging scene as she biked south a quarter mile on the Lake Tahoe Boulevard Bike Path from the corner of Lake Tahoe Blvd and Viking Road in South Lake Tahoe. Tiny Quaking Aspen, pushing up from the forest floor, were beginning to change color. Bikers, walkers, and strollers along the path were bombarded by Sugar Pine cones as afternoon winds picked up. She warned, “Wear a helmet!”

At Fallen Leaf lake, Pontoni reported seeing only one aspen full of yellow – all others were still “fully green.” Elsewhere, meadow brush were showing signs of change, painting the landscape with blended tones of lime-green, yellow, orange and russet.

In Tahoe City, red maple lifted their desiccated branches as if pleading for the subalpine lake’s normally clear skies to dissipate the gasses. As I passed Agate Bay, one could see only a hundred yards out into the brown-grey haze. Beyond it, there was only mystery and memories of Tahoe’s beauty.

I drove past Martis Creek’s derelict cabin on CA-267, its aspen enveloped in a foul air that both dulled and warmed their color, a mix of green, to lime, to pastel yellow, to sickly orange. Should it be photographed? Yes, but the scene was then too depressing to stop, unsaddle, gear up and take a photograph that would only leave me saddened.

This morning, I replied to a comment from travelgal485 which opined that perhaps this wasn’t the year to see California’s fall color. Having just experienced the suffocating, disheartening search for something bright and colorful, I was of a mind to agree, but recalled the lessons many years observing autumn have taught.

I answered, “Right now, it’s not the best time, but give it a day and it could be one of the most unbelievably beautiful years, ever. The reason it’s so disappointing, for the moment, are: forest closures (due to smoke and to allow USFS staff to focus on firefighting) and haze. However, both those conditions will change. Yesterday was the first clear day in a month in the Sacramento Valley, with an actual sunset seen along the Coast Range. If I’ve learned anything in more than 40 years writing about California’s fall color it’s what Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote 2,520 years ago, “the only constant is change.”

  • Davis – Just Starting (0 – 10%)
  • South Lake Tahoe / Fallen Leaf Lake – Just Starting (0 – 10%)
  • Tahoe City / Agate Bay / Martis Creek / Truckee – Just Starting (0 – 10%)
Flowering Pear and ornamental debris, Davis (9/16/20) Philip Reedy
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Early Signs

Chinese pistache, El Dorado Hills (8/15/20) John Poimiroo

Some trees are showing early signs of color change. This is normal.

Sycamore, Chinese pistache, Liquidambar have all exhibited tonal change in summer. In the Sierra foothills, Chinese pistache and sycamore are evolving from green to yellow-green foliage, as seen above.

However, many native oak – responding to record-high, late-summer temperatures, dryness and particulate dust from wildfire smoke are turning brown much earlier than in previous years.

  • Quaking Aspen, Agate Bay (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Quaking Aspen, Agate Bay (8/15/20) John Poimiroo

Reports of healthy stands of quaking aspen seen in the Hope Valley and at Lake Tahoe encouraged a suvey of North Lake Tahoe and Truckee this weekend. I found the aspen at Lake Tahoe to be in general good health, though stands surrounding the derelict cabin beside Upper Martis Creek (CA-267) are in trouble.

  • Martis Creek Cabin (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Martis Creek Cabin (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Insect Infestation, Martis Creek Meadow (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Martis Creek Meadow (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Martis Creek Meadow (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • Martis Creek Meadow (8/15/20) John Poimiroo
  • From Healthy to Deathlike at Upper Martis Creek Meadow (8/15/20) John Poimiroo

The aspen at Upper Martis Creek cabin (a favorite spot for wedding photos, portraits and easily accessed fall color) have not been healthy for some years.

I found the small grove surrounding the cabin full of yellow-green leaves, not from early change, but from a lack of nutrients.

Other trees in the grove vary from healthy to deathlike. In some instances holes in leaves indicate that the aspen appear were attacked by insects, while paper-dry brown leaves suggest a lack of water is killing off the aspen. In support of that, the meadow surrounding the cabin is bone dry and crunches when stepped upon, not a good sign for a meadow which should be moist.

That’s unfortunate, as while this is just one small location, it is a popular one for North Tahoe visitors in search of fall color.

0-10% – Just Starting – Sierra Foothills

0-10% – Just Starting – North Lake Tahoe

0-10% – Just Starting – Upper Martis Creek Meadow

0-10% – Just Starting – Blue Oak, Sierra Foothills

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