Drought breaks fast in Morris County, but June's damage is already done
August 13, 2026
Drought has broken hard over Morris County. A year of near-constant dryness peaked in late June, when moderate drought covered the entire county, the same stretch when black tupelos here were already flaming into premature scarlet and beech leaves were showing the dark veinal banding of Beech Leaf Disease. Since then the numbers have reversed fast: moderate drought fell to about 22% of the county by late July, then to roughly 2%, and by the first week of August it registered zero.That's a real shift in water availability across the Triassic Lowlands, not just a lull. What it means for the trees already stressed is a separate question, though. A tupelo that dropped leaves early in June has more soil moisture to work with now, but early leaf drop isn't reversible this season; the tree simply banked less energy before going dormant.Beech Leaf Disease follows a different mechanism entirely. It's driven by a nematode feeding inside the leaf tissue, not by drought stress, so easing water conditions won't slow the banding or the leaf curling that follows. The drought spike likely made both trees more vulnerable to what came next, but its disappearance doesn't undo either process. It will be worth watching whether next year's growth shows any recovery in the tupelos, even as the beech disease keeps its own separate course.
Water pH hit 9.1 this morning — a chemical milestone that marks an algal bloom…
June 29, 2026
Water pH hit 9.1 this morning — a chemical milestone that marks an algal bloom in full swing. As algae photosynthesize in warming water, they strip dissolved CO₂ from the system, driving pH upward past the safe threshold. Above 9, a critical shift occurs: the harmless ammonium in the water converts to toxic free ammonia, a poison that gills cannot tolerate. Fish already stressed by water temperature climbing to 23.5°C face a double squeeze.This isn't an isolated event. All 19 water bodies assessed within a five-mile radius are listed as impaired under federal standards. Dissolved oxygen, which should stay above 6 mg/L for most fish, has been fluctuating between 4.7 and 8.4 over the past week — a sign of acute stress pulsing through the system with each bloom surge and nighttime respiration. The Whippany and Passaic watersheds are showing what chronic nutrient enrichment looks like when summer heat and stagnation align.
Pharaoh cicadas emerge after seventeen years
June 6, 2026
The drone begins before dawn in the woodlands near Morristown, a low mechanical hum that seems to rise from the earth itself. Seventeen years underground, and now the pharaoh cicadas push through soil that has seen seasons the insects never witnessed. Their red eyes catch the early light as they climb the nearest vertical surface: oak bark, fence posts, the stems of invasive multiflora rose that has spread through these woods since their last emergence.The pharaoh cicada spends nearly its entire life as a pale, burrowing nymph, feeding on tree root fluids in the darkness below. For seventeen years, it grows slowly, molting through five stages while the forest above changes. Trees fall and new ones take root. The white ash overhead shows stress from invasive insects, but its roots still feed the cicadas below. When soil temperature reaches exactly sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit, some trigger clicks in their bodies. They dig upward through two feet of earth, emerging by the thousands on the same night.The timing is everything. Seventeen years creates a prime number cycle that predators cannot match. Birds like the common grackle and gray catbird feast on the first emergents, but the sheer abundance overwhelms them. Most cicadas survive to molt one final time, splitting their brown nymphal shells and unfurling transparent wings. Males climb high into the canopy, where they vibrate specialized membranes called tymbals to produce their species-specific song. The sound carries for miles. Females respond with wing flicks that create sharp clicking sounds. After mating, females use their saw-like ovipositors to cut slits in tree branches, laying eggs that will hatch in six weeks. The tiny nymphs drop to the ground and burrow down, beginning another seventeen-year wait.This synchronous emergence shapes the entire ecosystem. Tree swallows and purple martins gorge on flying adults. Ground-dwelling creatures like the spotted turtle find windfall protein from cicadas that fall or are knocked from branches. Even the forest floor changes as millions of emergence holes pockmark the soil, aerating compacted earth. The invasive Japanese honeysuckle may benefit from this temporary soil disruption, its seeds finding new purchase in the disturbed ground.The drone continues through the morning, a sound that connects this June to 2009, and 2009 to 1992, each emergence a precisely timed reunion with the sun. Close your eyes where you are and listen for that low, thrumming frequency that seems to come from everywhere at once.
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