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As leaves start to change in St. Lawrence County, New York’s fall foliage reports begin

Posted 9/13/14

The colorful change of fall foliage is upon us, and the season’s first I Love New York fall foliage report says the change is starting in the North Country. The report, online at …

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As leaves start to change in St. Lawrence County, New York’s fall foliage reports begin

Posted

The colorful change of fall foliage is upon us, and the season’s first I Love New York fall foliage report says the change is starting in the North Country.

The report, online at www.iloveny.com/seasons/fall/foliage-report/, charts color foliage conditions across the state, and is available beginning this week. It will be updated every Wednesday through the end of autumn.

Meanwhile The Foliage Network, with reports online at http://www.foliagenetwork.com/index.php/foliage-reports/foliage-reports-northeast-us/current-season-northeast-us, hasn’t noticed any change in the Northeast U.S. so far, but they haven’t spoken with Paul Hetzler of Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.

Hetzler, a forester and educator, noticed leaves changing color in places in the North Country early in August.

He says the early color change can be due to stress on the trees, “even now, two years later…as the result of the summer drought of 2012 when soil moisture dropped to the lowest levels since record keeping began.”

The change in color from the bright greens of summer to the brilliant hues of fall follows a predictable pattern across New York State. It begins high in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains in late August and early September, and spreads out and down across the hills and valleys of the state. It takes about two weeks for the colors to complete their cycles in any given area, with peak brilliance lasting three to four days in any one spot.

I Love New York is introducing a “Foliage Photog of the Week” social media campaign that will select and promote one photograph each week through November that is tagged using #NYLovesFall to promote autumn tourism in New York.

The fall foliage season is one of the state’s most popular travel seasons and means big business for New York. In 2013 alone, it is estimated that travel spending in New York State from September through November had a $15.67 billion total economic impact, with $25.28 billion in direct spending.

The fall foliage report includes a detailed map, vantage points for viewing spectacular foliage, suggested autumn getaways and weekly event listings. New York’s dedicated team of “leaf peepers” is continuing the decades-long tradition of searching the state to gather information for the weekly fall reports.

Beginning the week of Sept. 22 and running through November, one spectacular New York State fall foliage unfiltered photo posted using #NYLovesFall will be chosen and shared across state tourism social media pages. Each photo must be tagged with the name of the location of where the photo was taken.