Summer vacations are winding down and classrooms are full, but campsites are still busy with the fall season approaching. Aaron Speers, superintendent at Earl Rowe Provincial Park, said the park is about 50 per cent full making it a little quieter. “We do tend to get quite busy on the weekends still, but nothing compared to the summer, so it gives folks a lot of opportunity to get on those campsites that are booked up all summer long,” said Speers. “A lot more choice and freedom with last minute bookings.” Earl Rowe Provincial Park can accommodate more than 450 campsites during the summer. Jazmyn Macisaac spent the weekend camping and said there are many benefits to booking a campsite in the fall. “It’s not as hot, the bugs are a bit better, and there’s less people,” Macisaac said. “You get to kind of actually chill out (here) as opposed to the parks get pretty busy during the summertime.” Shawn Edwards and his wife are also taking advantage of a more relaxed park. “What we enjoy about fall camping is the quiet and peace and I enjoy canoeing,” said Edwards. “There’s not many people on the water, so it’s just great.” Those enjoying the conditions are still seeing a lot of green on the trees, as the leaves have yet to change colour. The Ontario Fall Colour Report said only 10 per cent of the leaves have fallen at Earl Rowe Provincial Park and 10 per cent have changed colour. There is one notable maple tree at the park that that has lost some leaves. Danijela Puric-Mladenovic is an assistant professor of forestry at the University of Toronto. She said the loss of leaves early often means a tree can be under stress. “When trees are stressed, they will start changing their colour earlier in the fall,” said Puric-Mladenovic. “One part will be green, the other branch will start to become yellow.” She said trees in suburban neighbourhoods can also be prone to losing their leaves earlier. “Those are very confined spaces (with) almost no soil, compacted soil, all sorts of stress that accumulated over years, plus probably a certain amount of (high-salt) soils.” said Puric-Mladenovic. While most parks in Ontario are still green, Puric-Mladenovic added cooler temperatures will quickly change the colours of the leaves. “If the change in temperature is kind of slow and and it’s almost like summer it’s dragging and we have enough rain (so) they can keep going longer,” said Puric-Mladenovic. “But as soon as you have a little colder spell, then the change of colour can go go faster.”
