This fall, as leaves evolve and the forests burst into brilliant hues of yellow, orange and red, leaf peepers are turning to social media and other Internet resources to get the latest foliage updates.

The State of Maine Department of Conservation has had a foliage website since 1997, said Gale Ross, Maine foliage spokeswoman. The website, www.mainefoliage.com, has been redesigned this year to enable faster and easier access on mobile devices, and visitors can now send photos to the website from their phones. Also new this year is a Twitter page, which gives updates in real time. Ross said she would like to see more photos on the Web page and invites people to send their foliage pictures.

The website has information about foliage and state-sponsored events related to the season. One feature that is popular is the weekly foliage report, which is posted on both the Web and Facebook pages every Wednesday.

Ross said Friday that more than 2,300 people have signed up to receive weekly foliage reports via email. She said the first person signed up as early as Jan. 3.

“Folks are signing up every day,” she said.

The state has been issuing foliage reports since 1959, said Ross. She recalls the days when they were mailed to media sources, and later, in the 1980s, when a staff member would spend a good chunk of a day faxing them out to members of the press. Later, there was an automated fax program, and now, of course, there is email.

Ross, in a phone interview Wednesday, said people began commenting minutes after she posted the report on the Facebook page that morning.

“It’s just incredible how quickly information gets out,” she said. The Facebook page, as of Friday afternoon, had 1,735 fans.

The weekly foliage reports will run for six weeks, or until Oct. 19, though officials may send one more report if some areas run late.

The page is not only a way for Ross to share information on behalf of the state, but a way for leaf peepers to share information with each other. Ross said people use the foliage reports and information on the Web pages to help plan trips, and the most popular Maine destination for leaf peepers is Bar Harbor.

And although most people turn to the state’s Internet resources for the weekly foliage reports, the phone hotline is still up and running, said Ross.

Leaf peepers can also get information from private websites. Steven Kelley of Kennebunk owns the Web domain www.leafpeepers.com, and has kept the website active most years since its inception in 1998.

He now also has a Twitter account on which he posts information about events and items of interest to leaf peepers, and recently added a Facebook page.

Kelley’s website has links to hotlines, Web camera pages and foliage reports for Maine and beyond.

He describes his web site as “not slick” and “kind               of campy.”

“I wanted it to be fun and informative,” he said.

He said recently he’s been getting about 400 unique users a day, and expects use will continue to be steady through October.

There was a time when people had to pick up tourist magazines for information on events, but now they can check out sources online, said Kelley.

“I think the Internet is a phenomenal resource for tourists,” he said.

Kelley said he once received a call from someone from AAA in Michigan, who said a customer used his site and loved it.

“It’s a good resource for people planning a vacation or a day trip,” he said.

Kelley said he’s thinking of heading to the Downeast Sunrise Trail in Eastern Maine to take some photos for his Web page. One of his favorite places to view foliage is the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire, and his favorite places locally are Estes Lake in Alfred and Fortunes Rocks Beach in Biddeford.

“We have so many opportunities here for leaf peeping, it’s spectacular,” he said.

Conservation officials say the northern half of Maine is more than halfway toward peak foliage as the state’s trees continue showing their fall colors.

The Maine Department of Conservation says the region from roughly Greenville north is now experiencing high foliage conditions, with colors 50 to 70 percent toward peak.

Moderate colors are showing up in a swath across central Maine from Rangeley and Bethel to Bangor and Calais. 

Trees in southern Maine and along the coast are just starting to show their colors.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.