A brief introduction to this new feature – Monthly Maple Review – we review a research article once each month to spotlight key findings, investigate curiosities, and uncover important implications for Ohio’s maple producers. Please comment below if you have thoughts, ideas, insights, or questions. And if you stumble on to a new maple article and want to see it highlighted in a Monthly Maple Review, please reach out to me via email – karns.36@osu.edu.
“A Changing Climate in the Maple Syrup Industry: Variation in Canadian and U.S.A. Producers’ Climate Risk Perceptions and Willingness to Adapt Across Scales of Production” by Anna Caughron and colleagues. This article was published in 2021 in the journal Small-scale Forestry.
The maple syrup industry is on an undeniable collision course with changing climatic regimes – shifting tree composition, more unpredictable and earlier sap seasons, and potential reductions in yield are all staring back when we look into the future. This list represents just the tip of the looming iceberg, and more southerly producers anticipate an even rockier path forward as evidenced by some impacts that we can already talk about in the present tense.
Anna and her co-authors are not the first team to survey climate-related issues amongst producers, and perhaps we will review other similar papers down the road. But one interesting angle, beyond the normal suite of factors like age or education or political affiliation, that this study examined was producer scale. Does producer scale impact willingness and ability to adopt climate-adaptation practices in maple production? Let’s first clarify what a climate-adaptation practice is. Consider the effects of shifting tree composition in Ohio. That shift will likely lead to increased dominance by red maples. Adapting to that effect would be to tap a diversity of maple species, not just sugar maples. Failing to adapt to shifting tree composition could lead to reduced tap quantity because of unwillingness to tap anything except a sugar maple.
With that point clarified, two over-arching findings stuck out to me. First, nearly 90% of all surveyed producers agreed that maple syrup production is closely linked to climate, and only 15% of small producers (<2,000 taps) believed climate-induced impacts would be a net positive to their operation. How often does that lop-sided a percentage of folks agree on something? Not often. Second, larger producers are more willing to adopt more climate-smart adaptation practices than medium or small producers. And guess what, political affiliation had nothing to do with any of the above. Yes, you read that correct – climate and maple is apolitical.
Before we dive into the specifics, know that it took 10,000+ taps to be categorized as a large-scale producer in this study. Quite frankly, most US producers in this study were small or medium, and most Ohio producers would certainly be “small.” A final caveat, before we dive into a few specifics, is that among the 354 survey respondents in the study, only 12 hailed from the Buckeye State.
Canadian producers, which are also more likely to be the “large” producers, are more apt to fertilize their sugarbushes and practice intensive silviculture, but significantly less likely to increase the number of trees they are tapping. I can see the practice of fertilization. Personally, I believe all maple producers – regardless of scale, should practice active silviculture in their maple woods. The goal of active silviculture after all should be healthy maples! The last point about tap quantity is a hard one to understand…until you discover that rules enforced by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers prohibits most producers from increasing their tap count. Given that most large producers are also Canadian, the pattern of stubbornly maintaining tap count then makes some sense. I certainly learned something new with that fact pointed out to me.
“Medium” producers were more likely to tap earlier, implement rigorous sanitation practices, and stay up to date on latest research finding than “small” producers. Multiple factors could be play as “large” and “medium” producers increasingly differentiate from “small” producers. I’ll quickly highlight just one factor as I grapple with the study’s findings. Some “small” producers are undoubtedly hobby producers. Making syrup is fun and as soon as it seems like work, well…where’s the fun? I can easily see why an individual producer with 100 or 2 taps would decide not to invest in high vacuum efficiencies.
Putting aside scale of producer and applying the lens of producer age, we learn that tapping red maples and using high vacuum systems are less likely among older producers. Only focusing on the practice of tapping red maples, this fits within the pattern of a traditional no-no generationally passed down. Not until more recently has University research been dedicated to documenting production potential in alternative maple species. What’s that saying about “old dogs?”
I’ll wrap this review up by pointing a finger back at myself – a maple educators. This sentence from the study speaks for itself, “Only 20.9% of producers…thought that information on climate change impacts on the maple industry was easy to access.” Yikes, that is a huge wake-up call and harsh criticism for the University community. Hopefully this site can help address these knowledge gaps for Ohio maple producers, and this Monthly Maple Review series is part of the solution.