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Jon Bouton does his leaf-peeping from his car, traveling Vermont's bumpy back roads in a 2001 Geo Prizm.

When the sugar maples, ash and poplars begin to show their colors, the Windsor County forester sends e-mails to the state tourism office, describing where the colors are brightest and what roads to take to see them. His counterparts in Vermont's other 13 counties do the same twice a week, their reports eventually combined into an online "foliage forecast."

Bouton, 59, is part of a small army of foresters, park rangers, volunteers and attraction operators in foliage-rich states whose observations point the way.

"If we're driving somewhere, we're looking," he said.

Fall foliage is a multimillion-dollar business for tour operators, inns, restaurants and attractions that cash in on the rush of camera-toting visitors. Nowhere is it more vibrant than in New England, where a predominance of maple trees produces a dazzling display of red, yellows, oranges and browns and everything in between.

In Vermont alone, visitors spend $374 million a year in the September-to-November season. Lucrative though it is, the fall isn't as big for the state as ski season and summertime, said a Tourism Department spokeswoman, Erica Houskeeper.

Typically, the foliage season runs from the end of September to mid-October, when chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down because days are getting shorter and nights colder.

Forecasting the colors is not new, but the Internet has boosted its immediacy and given leaf lovers new tools for going where the color is. Visitors can get foliage forecasts from both state-run telephone hot lines that advise where to go and online - in words, maps and photos.

In North Carolina, the state Division of Tourism's "Leaf Peepers" program puts forecasts online and on a telephone hot line beginning Sunday. In Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains Association posts a Web page of the observations of a volunteer. In Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, the regional visitors bureau posts color-coded maps online.

"The technology allows us to do quicker, more accurate foliage reporting, which is absolutely essential for our fall visitors," said Jeanne Curran, a spokewoman for Maine's Department of Conservation.

The forecasts come from volunteer spotters who deliver reports about what roads to drive, which kinds of trees are turning and when the peak periods of color will be. Those, in turn, are posted on websites in words, photos and colored maps.

New Hampshire offers text alerts regarding foliage for those who want them, as does Massachusetts.

"It's not based on predictions, it's based on actual observations," said Betsy Wall, the executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.

As for this year's foliage forecast, experts say the summer weather could make for more muted colors, an earlier start, both - or neither.

Originally published by JOHN CURRAN Associated Press.  (c) 2010 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.   

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