Our best images of trees and changing leaves

October 1, 2022
by RJ Hamster

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Welcome to October newsletter, we present our best photos of trees and turning leaves, consider four ways to save forests, discover a sunken U-boat off the U.S. East Coast … and remember mountaineering legend Hilaree Nelson.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LEN JENSHEL, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

It’s easy to take trees for granted.

And yet, in one of the Earth’s miracles, they turn light into life. As leaves turn in the Northern Hemisphere, we present some of our best images of trees (above, near Utah’s Escalante River)—and offer a valentine to their autumn offspring.

See the full story here.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY EMORY KRISTOF, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Riding through the seasons: Horseback riders stroll through colorful autumn foliage in Vermont. An archive image from Nat Geo Explorer Emory Kristof, 1967.

PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN TEH

Last tree before Antarctica: Searching for Earth’s southernmost tree, scientists traverse windswept Isla Hornos, on the tail of South America. In the evenings, the winds that drive deadly tall waves just offshore forced team members to hunker down for meals in the shelter of shrubs and patches of dwarf forest. Read about the wet, windy, chilly, mushy, stomach-turning searchfor that Tierra del Fuego tree.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ORSOLYA HAARBERG

Escaping the loggers: Italy’s Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park is home to some of the oldest beech forests in Europe. Thanks to a location that’s difficult to access, these trees have escaped felling for centuries. See more from Europe’s stunning old-growth forests—and check out four ways we can save forests for the next generations.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MELFORD, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Bit by bit: A leaf turns from summer green to autumn red in Adirondack Park, New York. This image is from a gallery keyed to the fall equinox.

PHOTOGRAPH BY AARON HUEY, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Hello grizzly! Autumn is also ideal for viewing wildlife with the changing foliage, such as this grizzly bear spotted by Nat Geo Explorer Aaron Huey at Polychrome Pass in Alaska’s Denali National Park. Here are the top U.S. national parks for viewing the foliage.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

NASA/SWRI/MSSS

NASA gets closer to Jupiter (pictured, its moon Europa on Thursday)

Remembering pioneering ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson

What archaeology tells us about the real Jesus

A forest bunker may hold the key to chemicals’ effects on our bodies

At a Las Vegas casino, the dolphins have been dying

Long-ago treasure emerges below London’s streets

New scholarship shows broader role for women in ancient Greece

See the last stonemasons tending to England’s cathedrals

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY BENJAMIN LOWY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

It’s a U-boat! When explorers discover a shipwreck underwater, they leave a calling card of sorts to let others know it had been previously found and documented. Captain Ross Cassway (pictured above, floating to the surface)did just that after he and a group located the last missing German U-Boat that had been in U.S. waters. Read about the exciting discovery here.

THE ELUSIVE U-111

OVERHEARD AT NAT GEO

PHOTOGRAPH BY GASTON ZILBERMAN

Taking action: When 22-year-old Eyal Weintraub found few climate crisis resources for Spanish speakers, he made a podcast to reach them. The Nat Geo Young Explorer also helped organize the Earth Day climate strike in Buenos Aires (pictured above). Meet Weintraub and two other ground-breaking Nat Geo Explorers in the latest episode of our podcast, Overheard at Nat Geo.

THE CLIMATE DEFENDERS

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY KARLA GACHET AND IVAN KASHINSKY, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

First Communion: Half of America’s more than 62 million Latinos identify as Roman Catholic—including this group of girls playing outside after their first Communion Mass. The image, from a 2018 Nat Geo story, was taken in La Puente, California, in Los Angeles County, which has more than 4.8 million Latinos. The number of Americans identifying as Latino or Hispanic rose 23 percent from 2010 to 2020, outpacing the nation’s 7 percent overall population growth.

SEE MORE VINTAGE PHOTOS

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Sydney Combs. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading!

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RJ Hamster

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