Fall color in a miniature forest

Back in March of this year, the town hired someone to come in a cut a fire break through the woods behind out office. I wrote about it here and here. It was a shame to see all the large, beautiful trees go. But everything is growing back pretty quickly. I don't know what is going to happen to the large trees that have now sprouted a lot of small shoots. Will they all grow together into one tree again or will some shoots out-compete the others and dominate? We'll see.

In the meantime, the fall colors haven't really hit our area yet - except for the small trees that are growing back in the fire break area. It's like a miniature forest. We can see over the tops of the "trees" as if we were flying over them in an airplane. I went out at lunch today and saw a lot of nice colors and took some pictures hoping to capture the beauty of the area. The top picture is a wide aspect view of all the mixed colors. Almost like a carpet laid down in the woods. The other pictures are pretty self-explanatory. The next picture is the only large tree (an oak) I took a picture of. Then come three different shades of maples.

It's almost as if someone set out to create a forest of bonsai trees. In this case, they get their shape because there are so many shoots rising out of the old tree stump. I don't remember the trees in this area being so colorful before. Even considering the pine trees among the tall trees on either side, the large trees aren't nearly as colorful as the new growth of trees in the middle.  I wonder if the stress they were under after being cut has anything to do with it.

As always with my pictures, you can just click on them to see the larger version. I've reduced the size of all of the pictures to help with the time it takes to upload them and to make displaying them faster. If anyone is interested in getting copies of the originals (my camera takes 6 megapixel pictures), let me know. I'm no great photographer but every once in a while I stumble into a nice picture.

The last picture is a small unknown red bush. It seems to like the fact that it isn't shaded by the trees around it for now. It won't be long, though. The way these trees are growing, the forest will be back in no time.