Stephanie Spera , University of Richmond Every October, when I was growing up in Massachusetts, my parents would check out the fall foliage reports and determine where we were going to drive to see the colorful leaves. And they still do. In New England, leaf peeping, as it’s called, is a billion dollar industry and millions of people travel to the region during foliage season. In Maine’s Acadia National Park, visitation has more than doubled in September and October since the early 1990s.