"WHEN DAYS SHORTEN and nights grow cooler in late summer and fall, trees such as maple, oak and beech cloak themselves in the bright shades of autumn. No colors are more central to this palette than the yellows, oranges and reds of sugar maples, which range from eastern Canada through the mid-Atlantic states, west to Minnesota and south along the Appalachians into Tennessee. Also prized for timber and maple syrup, sugar maples highlight the foliage displays that draw millions of people outdoors for nature’s autumn fling.

But fall is gradually becoming less colorful in the Northeast, thanks to rising temperatures, and the next 100 years of global warming could wipe out much of the region’s fall color and the tourist trade based on it, as well as its sugar maple industry. Researchers predict that global warming could cause sugar maples and other eastern forest species to abandon New England and move north as their ideal temperature ranges shift."   …  story continues … http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=117&articleID=1520&utm_source=NationalWildlifeMagazine&utm_medium=Article&utm_term=Oct07&utm_content=TakingtheAweOut&utm_campaign=3