Photo courtesy EcoPhotography
What would our fall season be without the luscious reds, oranges, and yellows that paint our hills and neighborhoods in autumn? What would our weekend breakfasts be without the tangy sweetness of real maple syrup to soak our blueberry pancakes?
Scientists who have studied the impacts of climate change on Northeastern forests warn that warming winters and nights have the potential to wreak havoc on these seasonal rites of passage by making our climate less hospitable to sugar maples and changing the character of our northern forests.
- Unless greenhouse gases are controlled, the Northeast's average yearly temperature could rise by 6 to 10 degrees, giving us the climate of mid-Atlantic states in less than 50 years.
- Scientists say—and yearly tapper observations attest—that sugar maples yield less sap in spring seasons that follow mild, dry winters.
- Droughts during the maple tree-growing season adversely affect production in subsequent years. Warmer winter temperatures are also detrimental because sugar bushes need a prolonged period of temperatures below 25°F to convert starch to sucrose and to get high sugar content in the sap. A freeze/thaw cycle of cold nights and warm days (above 38-40°F) is required to get the sap flowing. When the nights no longer freeze, the season is over.
- In Vermont, where 60 percent of Northeastern syrup runs, tappers have begun collecting sap a full month ahead of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The maple syrup industry is an integral part of the economy and the way of life there and elsewhere in the Northeast.
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Credit: Tony Downer,
UVM Department of
Entemology
A warmer climate also encourages arbor pests, such as the maple-loving pear thrip, shown at right. Trees become further weakened by climate-induced drought and unseasonably harsh storms.
- Without sugar maples, the Northeast will lose the fiery hues of its fall foliage. Maples give the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows to our autumn hillsides. Moreover, a drop in fall foliage-related tourism means fewer state-based jobs in the Northeast.
Credit: Kristi Donahue, ECS.
- Roughly one in four Vermont trees is a sugar maple.
- It takes 4-5 taps to produce enough maple sap—approximately 40 gallons—to yield just one gallon of syrup.
- Maple syrup can be substituted for white sugar in cooking.
- Native Americans produced maple syrup before settlers arrived in North America.
Interested in putting our “Save Our Syrup” stickers on your jugs and bottles of Northeastern-made maple syrup??
- We have a spring and fall version of the sticker that will suit your seasonal needs. Please call Jennifer Andrews for more information on receiving stickers: 603-422-6464, ext. 7.
- Your outreach efforts will help us raise awareness about the threat of global warming on our beloved syrup products. Help protect your business and our Northeastern heritage.
- Want to display a “Save Our Syrup” sticker on your car, coffee mug, or school notebook? Write to us at Clean Air-Cool Planet, 100 Market St., Suite 204, Portsmouth, NH 03801, Attn: Syrup Stickers. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
- Write to your governor and express your concern for our agricultural heritage and tourism industry should we lose our maple trees. Ask that they support active implementation of the New England Regional Climate Change Action Plan.
Sources: Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Association, Cornell University Sugar Maple Research and Extension Program, and the Proctor Maple Research Center at the University of Vermont.
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