Trees begin to turn with the official start of autumn

Sunday, Sept. 22 marked the beginning of astronomical fall, and our trees are showing it.

Flecks of red, yellow, orange and gold dot the hillsides and maples wear mottled coats of green and fiery orange alongside the roadways. It’s certainly still the early stages of foliage season, but Kent Tree Warden Bruce Bennett said in a recent interview that this timing was not always the norm.

“I’ve been around for 70 years,” he said, explaining that fall color used to begin around Sept. 5 and peak near Sept. 21. That peak date has “slowly but surely moved almost a month” to mid-October, he said, as a product of warmer and later autumns resulting from climate change.

A late-September leaf change matches the pattern of recent fall seasons. Bennett said red maples are among the best indicators for when autumn arrives. “They’re always the first tree to start to change,” he said, further explaining that the red maple usually provides the most vibrant color — “some pretty good red and deep orange.”

Bennett maintained that while people tend to think of sugar maples as the star of our fall season, it’s actually the red maples that really make the show. However, this year, he has high hopes for the sugar maples: “when they have a good year, they’re spectacular, and it looks like this might be a good year for the sugar maples.”

Predicting a foliage season is notoriously difficult. Bennett said that while people often talk about dry or wet weather in the fall as indicative of how bright the colors will be, “no one really knows.” He explained that there are many other complicating factors that can alter foliage vibrancy, including weather going back to the previous year and beyond. He said that last year’s season was spectacular during a really dry year, while five years before that was equally striking, but during a very wet year.

This maple tree on Mygatt Road in Amenia, New York, is starting to take on a yellow shade in some of its leaves. Leaf peepers traveling down the residential country lane should be aware the area is populated and caution is appreciated. Nathan Miller

Despite the uncertainties, Bennett said it will probably be another week or two before the region’s foliage reaches the 50% mark.

Further complicating things is the presence of disease in the region’s trees. Large numbers of maples this autumn have already had leaves shrivel up and turn brown, and in many cases have already fallen from the tree. Bennett explained that this is due to a common fungal disease called anthracnose that has proliferated in the canopy due to the unusually hot and humid summer.

While it will dampen the color by taking many of the brighter trees out of the picture, it is normally not harmful to the tree itself — the tree is simply shedding diseased leaves. Bennett said that leaves where the foliage is dense are the most affected as the fungus spreads by moisture. Well ventilated trees, such as those in clearings or more spacious forests, should remain free of the disease and produce their normal color.

Wake Robin Inn Innkeeper Michael Loftus upheld that these uncertainties and inconsistencies in the foliage season have caused any vestige of a foliage tourist season to largely disappear. “Is fall foliage even a ‘season’ anymore for our parts,” he asked. He said the fall was still a great season for the Inn, but due to group bookings for weddings or parents weekend visits for the region’s boarding schools, not foliage tourism.

Susan Sweetapple, owner of the Falls Village Inn, agreed that it can be hard to parse out the leaf peeping crowd from other types of autumn visitors, like parents weekend trips or events at Lime Rock Park, which has a busy program this season.

Other innkeepers felt that foliage tourism is alive and well in the region. John Ciliberto, manager at the White Hart Inn, maintained that “fall foliage will always be a reason to come to the Northwest Corner of Connecticut.” He maintained that leaf peeping, alongside other autumn-themed events such as Salisbury’s Fall Festival and Handmade Fair, causes a noticeable uptick in traffic from mid-September through the end of October.

Innkeeper Kevin Bosquet, who has been at the Interlaken Inn for 41 years, agreed that the region “absolutely” still has a foliage season. The season is enchanting, he said, especially for visitors from the cities who don’t have the same access to trees at home – “it takes everyone back to their childhood,” he said.

As for residents, the season is certainly here, and the trees show it. Bennett is confident that this year won’t disappoint for those who are willing to look for the beauty: “We always have a good fall,” he said, “it’ll be good.