9 Things in New York’s Woods That Are More Dangerous Than Residents Think
New York’s health department has tracked eleven cases of a mosquito-borne brain infection since 1971.
Seven of the people who got it died.
These are the things in New York’s woods that are more dangerous than residents think.
Note: This is general safety information, not medical advice. Guidelines are subject to change, so check with the New York State Department of Health or your doctor for the most up-to-date advice.
1. Blacklegged Ticks
Blacklegged ticks live in New York’s leaf litter, tall grass, and brush, from the Adirondacks down through Long Island.
Many New Yorkers already know to check for Lyme disease and figure a quick shower that night handles it.
It doesn’t.
New York’s health department confirms a tick can hand off Powassan virus, a rare brain infection with no vaccine, within 15 minutes of biting.
Lyme disease takes longer to spread, since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says a tick usually has to stay attached more than 24 hours first.
So a tick brushed off after five minutes on the trail can already have done its damage.
Many tick checks happen well after that window closes.
The 15-Minute Tick Rule Many New Yorkers Miss
New York’s tick danger isn’t the 24-hour window many hikers plan around.
Lyme disease still needs that longer attachment time to spread.
Powassan virus doesn’t wait that long.
A same-night tick check protects against one threat and misses the other, so watch for a sudden fever, headache, or confusion in the weeks after any bite.
2. Black Bears
Black bears no longer stay confined to deep Adirondack wilderness the way many residents still picture them.
The state’s own wildlife agency says bears now occupy most areas of New York outside New York City and Long Island, and hunters brought in a near-record 1,759 bears in 2025 alone.
That range shift changes more than where a hunter might find one.
New York’s DEC warns that a bear that learns to get food from people turns bold and aggressive, and a backyard bird feeder or an unlatched cooler teaches that lesson just as fast as a backcountry campsite does.
New York now requires overnight campers in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness to carry a bear-resistant canister between April and November because tents, backpacks, and food hangs have taught bears that campsites mean an easy meal.
A habituated bear doesn’t scare off.
It comes back.
3. Wild Parsnip
Wild parsnip grows along New York’s trailheads, roadside pull-offs, and overgrown fields, looking like an ordinary weed many hikers wouldn’t glance at twice.
It’s not harmless.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirms the sap contains chemicals that react with sunlight on skin, and contact can trigger a severe burn within 24 to 48 hours, plus skin discoloration and sun sensitivity that can last for years.
New York doesn’t even run a formal removal program for wild parsnip because state officials say the plant has become too widespread to control.
That’s exactly why it catches people off guard.
Brushing a bare leg against a single stem is enough contact to trigger it.
4. Giant Hogweed
Giant hogweed hides in New York’s forests, along stream banks, and near roadsides, often mistaken for Queen Anne’s lace, cow parsnip, or common elderberry.
Those plants share the same flat clusters of white flowers.
Giant hogweed can tower 14 feet over all of them, and the size alone should be a warning New Yorkers don’t always heed.
New York’s DEC confirms the sap can start blistering skin within 15 minutes of contact once it meets sunlight, and the burning compounds sit in every part of the plant, not just the stem.
Get sap in an eye, and the damage can be permanent.
Wash it off fast.
5. Dead Ash Trees
Dead ash trees stand throughout New York’s forests now, killed off by an invasive beetle many hikers have never heard of.
Ash makes up close to 8% of all trees in New York, and the state says an infested tree usually dies within two to four years of the emerald ash borer moving in.
A dead ash doesn’t fall over right away.
It waits.
Then it drops limbs with no wind or warning.
New York’s DEC calls these dead ash trees a significant public safety hazard for the municipalities and landowners whose forests hikers and campers walk through every day.
A tent pad under one of those trees is a bet many campers don’t realize they’re making.
Psst! How much do you know about New York’s forests and wildlife? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Adirondack & Catskill IQ
Answer these questions on New York’s forests, peaks, and wildlife. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
New York’s Adirondack Park is the largest park in the contiguous U.S., running nearly three times the size of which famous Western national park?
6. Eastern Coyotes
Eastern coyotes live throughout Upstate New York and commonly inhabit many suburban and urban areas, with occasional sightings in parts of New York City and Long Island, and many residents still picture the small, skittish coyote from a nature special out west.
Not the same animal.
DEC confirms the eastern coyote averages about 40 pounds, noticeably bigger than coyotes out west, likely a legacy of generations of interbreeding with wolves as the species moved east.
They travel in family groups defending a territory that can run 15 square miles.
Conflicts with people stay rare, DEC says.
But the agency is direct about what happens when a coyote closes in on a pet on a leash: That can jeopardize the safety of the person holding it, too.
7. Fast-Rising Streams
New York's fast-rising streams cut through nearly every popular Adirondack and Catskill trail, and they look harmless on a dry afternoon.
That calm doesn't last.
New York's forest rangers warn that water levels can rise fast during heavy rain and turn impassable within minutes, trapping a hiker on the wrong side of a crossing that was ankle-deep an hour earlier.
A creek that reads as a five-second hop at noon can be a chest-deep hazard by 2 p.m.
Check the forecast before you cross, not after.
8. Sudden Temperature Swings
Sudden temperature swings in New York's High Peaks region catch hikers who packed for a warm trailhead and never planned past it.
Elevation changes everything up there.
New York's DEC warns that hypothermia can strike even during the summer months, especially once wet clothing and wind meet a hiker who has already burned through their energy.
The body loses heat faster than it can produce it once conditions turn cold and damp, DEC says, and a warm start at the trailhead is no guarantee of a warm finish at the summit.
A base layer left in the car doesn't help anyone once the trail climbs above the treeline.
9. EEE-Carrying Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes carrying Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) breed in New York's wooded swamps and slow-moving water, and many hikers treat a bite as nothing worse than an itch.
That itch-only assumption doesn't hold up.
New York's health department has confirmed 11 cases of the virus since 1971, and seven of those New Yorkers died.
Nationally, about a third of everyone who develops EEE doesn't survive it, the same health department reports.
The mosquitoes carrying it bite hardest at dusk and dawn, exactly when many hikers wrap up a summer trail.
New York confirmed its most recent human case in Ulster County in 2024, the state's first since 2015, a month after the same virus turned up in a horse in that same county.
Symptoms can start with a sudden headache and fever four to ten days after the bite, then progress to seizures and brain swelling within days.
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Some of them sound made up until you find the citation, which is exactly the fun of digging through them.
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