Walk in First Landing State Park to the rustling music of the beech tree leaves this winter.
This time of year, most deciduous trees have dropped their leaves to the forest floor, but not the beeches. These cold-weather friends provide forest music well into winter because they hold on tight to their beautiful, coppery-brown leaves.
Listen to them rustle on the video:
In autumn, the beech’s green leaves turn yellow, progress to copper and then refuse to shrivel and fall.
You might also recognize a beech this time of year by its smooth bark. The bark is so smooth that it makes it easy for a passerby to carve the initials of someone special, encircled by a heart, say. on the even surface.
Beech trees love the shade of the understory and living by the water so they can easily be seen along the 64thStreet trail in First Landing.
Beech trees also have little prickly seed pods—beech nuts—that wildlife dine on in winter, but it’s their winter music that humans like.