Leaf-Out (Back to Signs of Spring Everywhere Home Page) Background How do trees know it's spring? What happens if the leaves come out too early? How do my leaves fit into the food chain? Is it true that some songbirds arrive from the Tropics just as the leaves emerge on my trees? We hope you'll explore these and other questions by reporting when leaves emerge on your trees. How to Participate in Journey North's Leaf-Out Study Adopt a local tree of one of the following species. Visit your adopted tree on a regular basis. Sketch the buds on the same small branch each time you visit. Watch the bud open, the tree bloom and the leaves emerge. Report to Journey North when its leaves are the size of a U.S. (or Canadian) quarter--that's our definition of "leaf-out". Maps courtesy of: Macalester College Geography Department, and students Uriah McKinney and Debbie Bojar Sugar Maple Please report to Journey North when leaves on trees of any of these 4 species emerge. Our definition of "leaf-out"? Flowering Dogwood Redbud When leaves are the size of a quarter. Quaking Aspen Copyright 1999 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form