Friday Eye Candy: Mapping the Country's Seasonal Bloom

Laura Bliss shares news of a map created by the U.S. Forest Service that "[maps] in glorious Technicolor the beginning of seasonal greening, or 'greenup,' across America's forests, fields, and urban areas."

Bliss notes that the map is "eye candy to most of us," but the map serves a much more serious purpose, to help "land managers as they 'anticipate and plan for the impacts of disturbances such as weather events and insect pests,' according to a press release."

The ForWarn mapping tool, as its called, also provides "greenup" maps for a handful of U.S. cities and metropolitan areas, so it's also possible to see how seasonal blooms occur on different timelines at the hyperlocal level in cities and metropolitans areas like Indianapolis, Central Illinois, Greater Chicago, Columbus, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Omaha and Lincoln, Little Rock, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Greater Atlanta, Greater Asheville, Greater Washington, D.C., Greater New York, Greater State College, Pennsylvania, Missoula, and Albuquerque.