The Hudson Valley is nearing its peak foliage this coming week, with the Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Forest Reserve exploding in crimson reds, tangerine orange, canary yellow, muted gold and every color along the vast autumnal palette. Despite these wild splashes and surges of colors lighting up the hills and the valley, the drought and extreme heat from the summer are having their impact on the brilliance of the fall foliage, according to the New York State Department of Environment Conservation (DEC).
“This year, foliage will tend to turn earlier, and colors are expected to be a bit muted,” said Jeff Wernick from the Albany DEC Media Relations Office. “Weather has the largest influence on fall colors from year to year, with heavy fall rains washing out colors.” Colder nights, which include anything above frost temperatures, help create favorable conditions for anthocyanins and the breakdown of chlorophyll, which leads to more vibrant leaf colors. When asked about how the hot and dry summer might impact the foliage, Wernick said that, “Due to summer droughts and high wind events, this fall the leaves are expected to drop slightly faster, so the season is anticipated to be shorter overall.”
Foliage can be tricky to predict, particularly on a local or hyperlocal level like the Hudson Valley or Ulster County. Because the region experienced a summer drought and late, record-breaking high temperatures in August, trees were put under duress, which can result in earlier leaf fall and muted colors. That said, the DEC noted that the late summer and early autumn rainfall the region has received “could be enough to negate the effects of the drought,” although if the rains continue to be too heavy, they could play a role in washing and weighting the leaves to the ground.
The moral of the story? Get out and enjoy those colors while you can, because each day they’re dying a bit more brilliantly than the day before. You’ll never hear their swan song unless you’re out there twirling under a canopy of turning leaves.
The Mohonk Preserve’s take on 2022 fall foliage
“From spring to current conditions, factors including temperature, light and water supply all have an influence on the degree and the duration of fall color,” said Mohonk Preserve’s Research Ecologist Megan Napoli. The Preserve had a wet, warm spring (average temperature was 50.9, 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit above the 126-year average, and precipitation was 15.8 inches, 3.6 inches above average), “which is ideal for leaf development and retention,”. she said and added that the Preserve did have a hot, dry summer (average temperature was 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.6 degrees above the 126-year average, marking this the sixth-warmest summer on record, and precipitation was 9.36 inches, 3.78 inches below average), which can cause leaves to change color earlier in the season and drop more readily because of stress on the tree.
The conditions that make for spectacular autumn color displays are a moist growing season followed by a dry autumn with warm, sunny days and cool (but not freezing) nights. What leaves really need for a good display during this time is clear sun in the day, with nights that are a bit chilly — but not freezing. The warm sun provides the sugars needed for pigment production, and the cold makes sure the sugars don’t travel far from the leaf [source: US Forest Service]. The right weather during the autumn can promote more intense color production. The reds (anthocyanins), which require sunlight for production, are enhanced by cold and sunny days. Rainy and windy weather during the autumn can knock leaves down prematurely, thereby shortening the color display at its peak (https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/leaves/factors).
We may see relatively broader leaf color change earlier this year, compared to last year, because of the dry summer; but if we get lucky and experience mild conditions in these next few weeks (minimal rain and wind events), there should still be plenty of lovely fall color to enjoy.”
On the lookout for invasive species
The New York State Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) is working closely with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Mohonk Preserve and other partners to monitor the Southern pine beetle (SPB), a deadly threat posed to New York’s pine forests that has migrated from the Southeast to the Northeast due to warming temperatures. Read Hudson Valley One’s previous story on SPB at https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2022/04/29/minnewaska-sams-point-brace-for-southern-pine-beetle-attacks.
Although there have been some deadly infestations in pine barrens on Long Island dating back to 2014, what sent land conservationists into high alert last year was when Southern pine beetles were found in traps at Schunnemunk, Minnewaska and Taconic State Parks. Ongoing monitoring and collaboration to catch any presence of SPBs before an infestation can occur has helped to keep the beetles at bay for now.
“At this time, DEC has not found infested trees on the Shawangunk Ridge. However, the last few years DEC has found beetles in traps at increasing levels. DEC continues to monitor with beetle traps. DEC has done two aerial surveys this year and numerous ground surveys and has not found any infested trees. The last three infested trees were found last winter at Sunset Rock, near the Massachusetts border. Those three trees were cut and chipped. No more infested trees have been found there since.”
Those hiking or enjoying the 8,000 acres of the Mohonk Preserve might see an SPB trap (at the Testimonial Gatehouse or along Trapps Carriageway, along with three others on the Preserve and Mohonk Mountain House property), as the Preserve has joined in the efforts to monitor beetle activity. “Although it is well studied in the Southern US, there are a lot of unanswered questions about how SPB could impact our pitch pines, so we recently teamed up with members of the DEC’s Forest Health team to collect forest data from our pitch pine stands to use in a hazard model that the Forest Service is developing for the Northeast,” said applied forest ecologist Kate O’Connor of the Preserve. “We have placed four traps on the Preserve and one trap on Mohonk Mountain House property to monitor for SPB. We have not collected any SPB yet this year.”
The adult SPB enters a tree through crevices in the bark and then creates S-shaped tunnels in the cambium tissue, just beneath the bark. This disrupts the flow of nutrients and can kill the tree within two to four months. According to the DEC, “Most trees resist the initial attacks by secreting resin that can ‘pitch out’ some adults and slow the entry of others,” which creates a popcorn-sized-and-shaped globule of resin that can be seen on the bark of an infested tree, along with the S-shaped tunnels. While pitch pines can push out various bark beetles and some SPBs, if they become overwhelmed by thousands of attacking beetles, their defenses are weakened and they can die quickly.
Everyone can participate as citizen scientists and keep an eye out for signs of the Southern pine beetle and report them to the DEC. To learn more on how to spot SPB activity and how to report it, go to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/jeff.wernick%40dec.ny.gov/CllgCHrgDHTdTqZcKScFBRnNswvbxgQTJpvxdBMWJsXZtHbCNHTvnqJfzgmMzKDTFWpxdQTvJwL?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1.
The Preserve’s invasive species volunteers have also been actively surveying the mountain and foothills for the spotted lanternfly (SLF) and its host, the invasive Tree of Heaven. According to the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, the spotted lanternfly “is a planthopper native to China and Southeastern Asia. Discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014, the spotted lanternfly presents a threat throughout much of the United States. While its list of hosts is large, the greatest agricultural concern falls on grapes, hops, apples, blueberries, and stone fruits.” It poses a great danger to agriculture in New York and spreads easily, laying its eggs on almost any hard surface including wood, metal and stone, making it difficult to detect and deter.
“While we are not very concerned about this invasive in our forests, we do understand the threat it poses to our farming neighbors in the Hudson Valley,” said O’Connor. “To monitor and prevent infestations, we have adopted two of New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ SLF Grid Squares, which we survey once per season for both of those species, and we encourage all visitors to report SLF using iMapInvasives.”
Last week, Preserve staff began efforts to control Tree of Heaven spread on the Preserve by working with volunteers from the local Bruderhof community to remove the trees around the Pine Farmhouse.
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