The fall foliage season is an important tourism draw for Blue Ridge Mountain communities. Helene struck just weeks before 2024’s peak, effectively putting it on hold.
Appalachian State University biologist Howard Neufeld is known as “the fall color guy.” For around 15 years, he’s been letting people know what to expect when the color changes hit.
WFDD’s Paul Garber spoke with Neufeld about the lessons learned from Helene and how the storm may affect this year’s display.
Interview highlights
On the economic impact of the fall foliage season:
“A lot of the communities here depend on the economic input to make it through the year. So last year was a pretty devastating effect. The estimated impact for a normal year is somewhere between $600 million and $800 million over those three months [September-November] with gas and food and lodging and souvenirs and all those things. And if you take that much money out of the economy, it's going to have a pretty big impact. So I'm hoping that, since most of the roads are reopened, and a lot of the businesses have come back … people will think to come up to the mountains.”
On the impact of Helene on this year’s colors:
“We've had hurricanes in the past come through, not anywhere near what Helene was, and we've had also just strong thunderstorms with a lot of wind and rain. If they come through when the trees are fairly green, at that time, the leaves are held pretty tightly on the tree, and some do drop. I mean, that's normal, but most stay on the tree, and then once the storm passes, if we don't get another one, we'll have a good fall color season. But what I think Helene did that was different than past storms was it knocked trees down. … So what I think could be the difference this year is that when people go out and they just look at the whole landscape to take in the views, they may see patches of downed trees where there's not as good color."
On the long-term lessons of Helene:
“Helene, I think, is a bellwether for future climate influences. We have to know that Hurricane Helene, which people referred to as a one-in-1,000-year storm, that's only in reference to when the carbon dioxide levels were much lower and the world was cooler. But as we continue to put the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we are changing the climate so that storms like Helene … may come more often. A warmer atmosphere could hold more moisture, and then there's more energy in the atmosphere. If you get storms that come more rapidly and come straight into the mountains before they have time to dissipate their energy, they can have more drastic effects up here.
I'm hopeful that the forest will recover, because there's a lot of potential for that in the southern Appalachians… The other thing I think about fall color season, it attracts so many people to see the colors. One has to wonder, why do people like that? What is it about their psyche that they like to come out and get into nature and see these beautiful colors? And one of the things I hope it does is it makes people appreciate the beauty of nature when they see it, that they want their children and their grandchildren to see it, and as a result, if there are developmental pressures that are going to destroy the landscape, that they will become more active in trying to preserve those forests.”
