Autumn colour is one of nature's most spectacular seasonal events, and you can help us record it. By sharing what you see during your visit, you'll contribute to a nationwide citizen science project that is building a better understanding of how autumn unfolds across England's forests.
Your observations will help us monitor seasonal change across different regions and tree species. This will create a valuable long-term record of how autumn patterns may be changing over time.
Ready to contribute?
Record which autumn colours you saw and help us tell the story of autumn across the nation.
Frequently asked questions
Autumn Leaf Watch is our citizen science project that tracks how autumn colours appear and change across the nation's forests. By sharing what you see during your visit, you're helping us build a long-term picture of seasonal change across England's forests.
You can submit observations until Monday 30 November.
Simply visit a participating Forestry England forest and use the tracker on our website to record the autumn colours you observe.
The information helps us monitor seasonal change and create a valuable long-term record of autumn patterns. Over time, this can help us understand how factors such as weather and climate influence the timing and intensity of autumn colour.
No. Autumn Leaf Watch is designed for everyone to take part. Simply record the colours you can see during your visit. You don't need to be able to identify every tree species to contribute useful observations.
Yes. We encourage you to record your observations each time you visit, especially if colours have changed since your last visit. Multiple observations help us build a more detailed picture of how autumn develops over time.
The Autumn Leaf Watch forest selector currently includes the forests featured on our website. While we manage more than 1,500 forests nationwide, many are smaller woodlands that are not listed as visitor destinations on our website.
As this is the first year of Autumn Leaf Watch, we've focused on forests where people can easily visit and record observations. This helps us build a strong foundation for the project and ensure the data we collect is as useful as possible.
At the moment, observations can only be submitted for participating Forestry England forests. If you can't find your local forest, we still encourage you to enjoy the changing colours of autumn and explore nearby sites that are taking part. We hope to expand participation and coverage in future years.
The map is updated regularly as new observations are submitted and processed.
New observations may take a short time to appear, so please check back if you don't see your submission straight away.
To provide the clearest picture of conditions in each forest, the map displays the colour most commonly selected for that forest during the current month. This means that even if you submit a different colour, the map may not change if most observations indicate another stage of autumn colour.
Your observations are combined with those from other participants to help build a national picture of autumn's progress. Individual contributions help create a valuable record of seasonal change over time.
We do not record or store any personal information.
