[Intro]
Listen…
(What’s that?)
The forest is talking…
(What’s it saying?)
Timing…
(Timing?)
Everything’s in the timing…
[Verse 1]
Spring came early
(What did you say?)
Trees woke up
(Before the day)
Buds unfolding
(Birds take flight)
Roots are moving
(Into the light)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Verse 2]
Phenology
(What’s that?)
The study of timing
(That’s that!)
When leaves unfold
(When flowers bloom)
When insects emerge
(When birds resume)
When trees put out
(Their tender leaves)
When caterpillars hatch
(Before the freeze)
When pollinators arrive
(When food is there)
When everybody’s ready
(But nobody’s prepared)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Bridge]
It’s not just hot…
(That we’ve got.)
Things aren’t rhyming
(It’s the timing.)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Bud break!
(Break!)
Leaves
(Leaving)
Flower!
(Power!)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Who’s keeping time?
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Breakdown]
Phenology…
(Phenology…)
Messin’ with biology
[Final Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Outro]
A man-made
(Cascade)
Changing the forest’s functions
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Changing who’s viable)
… a phenology tragedy
Autumn came late…
(We changed the date.)
About the Song
Phenology: The Study of Biological Lifecycle Events
Disruption in Pennsylvania’s Sylvania
Pennsylvania’s forests are being disrupted by accelerating seasonal expansion—the lengthening of warm-season conditions into spring and autumn. The change is doing more than making individual days warmer. It is altering the timing of tree life cycles, increasing ecological vulnerabilities, and shifting which species can successfully survive and reproduce.
As summer-like conditions expand into early spring and late autumn, biological events known as phenology are increasingly occurring outside the historical weather conditions to which Pennsylvania’s forests evolved.
The result is a cascade of ecological disruptions.
Phenology: Disruption in Penn’s Sylvania
From the album “Present Tense“