It's that time of year where northeast residents and visitors alike are venturing out to peep a leaf or two.
But this year, the autumn tourism season may face some challenges, like high gas prices and strained relations between the U.S. and Canada. Lucas Willard asked North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley for a foliage update.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: this conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Bradley: Usually, by mid to late September is when you really start seeing it start to pop. In late August, you start seeing little tiny clusters of foliage. There was one cluster when I drove over to Vermont in the islands, where there was a really nice cluster, and the folks that I've talked to about foliage have said the early ones are because of various stresses on the trees. If it's a stressed tree, they're going to start coming out first. So we're heading into it, but there's not a gigantic amount of color change yet.
Willard: This year, we've also seen this tar spot on maple trees. It's a fungal infection, and it's causing a lot of maple trees to lose their leaves early and turn brown. It's not the the pretty orange leaf that you might be used to seeing at this time of year. Have you seen any impacts, or do things look any different from the emergence of this disease this year?
Bradley: I haven't seen a lot of the leaves with that sort of brown spot up here, and the experts that I've talked to have said that we haven't had, at least in the northern parts of the area, as much stress on the trees. So, they're anticipating that the maples, the red maples and the sugar maples, will really put on a good display this year.
Willard: And what are you expecting for visitors? I mean, since COVID, we've seen so many more people come up into northern New York from other areas to take advantage of outdoor amenities and and the leaf peeping season. But we're also seeing a chilly relationship between Canada and the U.S. right now. Does that play a role in what we might see in in visitors coming to the Adirondacks and and into Vermont and northern New York to see the leaves?
Bradley: It might make a little bit of a difference. But one of the things that tourism agencies have been doing because of the the situation between the U.S. and Canada, they're redirecting a lot of their advertising and invitations to bring people to the area to other places. We're within a two-, three-hour drive from some of the major metropolitan areas like New York City and Boston, and so they're focusing a little bit more that way. And I mean, we may not have a lot of leaves colored coming out yet, but I have seen some tour busses already in the area, so they're already making their ways up here.
