A SIGNAL IN THE TREES One of the first red leaves of fall is carrying a message. It is not addressed to us. FEATURE
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sourwood turns crimson on a road bank in the second week of September. It looks like a tree getting ahead of the season. Andrew Renfro reads it differently: the tree is not early, it is on time, signaling something that has not arrived yet. On the path out to Sunset Rock, the Land Conservation Director for the Highlands- Cashiers Land Trust stops at that distinction. The sourwood is keeping an appointment that is not set by the surrounding canopy. From an overlook, the Plateau can read as one continuous forest. Up close, the trees are answering different conditions and relying on different ways to move what comes next. Fall makes those differences visible. A red leaf can be an advertisement, a sign of strain or simply a tree keeping its own schedule. The color is the part we notice. What matters is what put it there and what is moving around it. The appointment is for the birds.
FALL 2026
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