It’s October, but it seems like someone forgot to tell the trees at Coopers Rock State Forest, just outside of Morgantown.
Gerard Foerster, a German line dancer traveling through the eastern U.S., said he’s a little disappointed in the lack of seasonal display in the forest after passing through other regions.
“The color in [the] Blue Ridge Mountains is better,” he said. “[It] was yellow and red. But here, only green.”
For the past several years, the state of West Virginia has invested in tools and resources to help travellers to the Mountain State avoid this fate. But knowing when colors appear — and peak — can be tricky.
Jeremy Jones, director of the West Virginia Division of Forestry, said the science of why leaves change helps officials to understand where the best colors will appear, and more importantly when.
“When the days start getting shorter, when there's less daylight and the temperatures start to drop, essentially, the chlorophyll production in the leaves slows down and stops,” he said.
That causes the leaves’ green to fade away and allow other pigments to come through.
“That's what creates the beautiful red, orange, yellow, you know, the beautiful color that we're used to seeing,” Jones said.
Jones’ office helps to create a fall foliage forecast map published each year at the end of summer. The prediction is based on historical data and environmental factors like rainfall and temperature. This has been an atypical year, with a wet start to the summer followed by very dry, warmer weeks extending into early October.
Regardless of when the colors show up, Jones said he welcomes the opportunity to highlight one of West Virginia’s best features.
“We're the third most forested state in the country. We're fortunate to have a very diverse hardwood forest, which is why we have beautiful fall foliage like we do,” he said. “But it's just very flattering, and it makes me proud and privileged, actually, to help the Department of Tourism promote this beautiful time period for our state and folks out there.”
Lauren Bodnar, the director of public relations and strategic partnerships for the West Virginia Department of Tourism, said her office pulls photos from social media for their live fall foliage tracker, so people can see, in real time, where color is.
“We definitely are trying to give travelers the best insights of where we're seeing the leaf colors changing,” she said.
Bodnar said the state’s geographical range and varied elevations means a longer foliage season. So even though visitors to the Morgantown area may be met with green, towns further east and higher up — like Davis or Lost River in the Allegheny Highlands — are vibrant with color.
This year, Bodnar said her office is taking a new approach by publishing weekly travel itineraries for the regions with the best foliage.
“From what we've seen in our research, there aren't many states, if any, that are making this information as accessible as we are to travelers,” she said.
Though West Virginia is not strongly associated with fall foliage, Bodnar calls it more of a hidden gem. But tourism is becoming big business, with the state government estimating it added $9 billion to the economy last year.
“Really just like year over year, we've seen an increase in tourism to the state,” Bodnar said. “With that, we're seeing the creation of more jobs, and the economic impact has really just been amazing.”
The state government is betting big on the seasonal change this year. The shutdown of the federal government at the start of October means national parks are closed to the public. Except in West Virginia, where within days of the closures, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that the state will spend close to $100,000 to keep its two national parks, New River Gorge and Harper’s Ferry, open to the public through at least Oct. 24 during what is expected to be peak fall foliage.
Bodnar and Jones both encourage everyone — visitors and locals — to get out and enjoy West Virginia’s public lands during the most visually striking time of the year.
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky and NPR.