Does global warming mean that north country maple producers should begin tapping earlier?
That's a question the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is looking to answer through an early-tapping study at six maple operations, three of them in Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.
"Maple producers have a legitimate concern about how they should be adapting to climate warming trends," Michael L. Farrell, director of the Uihlein Sugar Maple Research and Extension Field Station in Lake Placid, said in a release.
"Long-term sap collection records on the trees at the Uihlein Forest show that both the start and end of the sap season has moved about a week earlier in the past 30 years with an overall loss of three to four days of production."
"Climate projection models suggest that the sap season with the freeze-thaw conditions needed to make the sap run will continue to advance," Brian F. Chabot, director of the maple program at Cornell University, Ithaca, said in a statement. "Winter as we know it may be replaced by spring beginning in early January."
Participants are working with Mr. Farrell and Mr. Chabot to evaluate the impact of climate change on the maple industry. The producers have agreed to tap 36 maple trees at several intervals and record sap flow, volume and sugar concentration. The data then will be used to help determine optimum tapping time, advantages and disadvantages of early tapping and potential for staggering tapping as a risk-management strategy.
Eighteen high school juniors enrolled in the environmental conservation and forestry program at the Howard G. Sackett Technical Center, Glenfield, are contributing to the study at their 217-tap maple operation at Maple Ridge Center on East Road in the town of Lowville.
"It's been a great opportunity for the kids," said instructor Kevin J. O'Neill, whose students have been working the sugarbush for the past seven seasons. "All it really forced us to do was come up here a little earlier in the year."
For purposes of the study, the class tapped 12 trees apiece Jan. 7 and 31 and March 3 and have been monitoring production and quality from those trees, Mr. O'Neill said. While the early taps have been relatively slow, he said, he hoped to have enough sap to begin boiling by the middle of next week.
The ongoing research project should prove helpful to area maple producers because the research is taking place locally, said Michele E. Ledoux, executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County.
"It's relevant to our climate," Mrs. Ledoux said.
Steven Rider, who has a 400-tap operation near Barnes Corners, also is participating in the study, as is the 4-H program at Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County, Canton.
Other participants are Heaven Hill Farm/Northwood School in Lake Placid, Champlain Valley Education Services in Plattsburgh and Rolland Thomas of Alder Brook Maple Products in Dickinson.
Sap in maple trees tends to flow best when temperatures are above the freezing point during the day and below freezing at night. Warm periods cause pressure to develop in maple trees, causing sap to flow up from the roots to the tap holes. Subsequent cold periods then cause water to be drawn into the trees, replenishing their sap content.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup.
"The decision on when to tap is critical," Mr. Farrell said. "If one taps too early, the tap holes may dry up prematurely, causing producers to miss late-season runs. However, delaying tapping until the traditional time in late February or early March could result in producers missing the early-season runs."
