Picture of the Month:
Autumn on West Bijou Creek
It's that time of the year again. While Colorado's mountains are renowned for their fall foliage colors, residents of the eastern plains
don't have to travel very far to see the same beauty along the many creek beds where Cottonwood trees flourish.
The change in leaf color from green to yellow and/or red is the result of diminished cholorphylls, the dominate leaf pigment present during
the summer. Cholorphylls diminish because of fewer hours of sunlight available to the trees in the autumn. This change begins several weeks the
before the first fall frost and is not related to it, as commonly thought. All it takes are warm sunny days and clear, cool evenings with overnight
temperatures around 45 degrees F.
West Bijou Creek is normally dry although water can be found just a few inches below the sandy surface.