Author: Gabe Karns

Maple & Popular Mechanics…???

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Maple for the masses – of course that’s our goal when we think about the tasty product we produce and the many millions of people who aren’t yet customers but should be!

Maple for the masses – from a researcher’s perspective, there’s always the goal for our work to be translated from research into applied guidance that can be adopted by producers all over the landscape.

Maple for the masses – from a general knowledge and curiosity perspective, producers love to tell others about the maple culture and practice that we love so dearly.

One could argue these elements leverage Curiosity into Consumption which eventually turns into Concern for the resource – a beautiful way to think about how our human curiosity can find engagement that ultimately leads to a stewardship ethic around an issue or topic or resource.

Very seldom does a single piece of media capture all of these perspectives and more so wonderfully.  Sticking with the personality of Aaron Wightman from Cornell (see last week’s post about the Sweet Talk Maple Podcast), I think you’ll agree this Popular Mechanics article is a real doozy.  Enjoy!

Upcoming Events

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There’s an incoming wave of maple- and maple-adjacent events.

First up, Carri Jagger and and Kathy Smith are giving a seminar on hobby maple as part of Morrow County Extension’s programming next Saturday, July 6th at Lowe-Volk Park (2401 State Route 598) at 1 PM.  If you have access to a few maple trees, whether growing in your yard or in a woodland, you can produce your own maple syrup and perhaps even have enough to use as gifts for friends and family!

The following Friday, July 12th, we are excited to introduce a spiced up, live-from-the-field version of the annual Woodland, Water, and Wildlife Conference that is hosted in early March.  This July event is not replacing the normal WWW Conference by any means, but it is designed to be a complimentary field-based twist on the same great programming attendees have come to expect.  A full agenda is available online of the 12 different sessions of the day.  Register HERE.

Finally, the Ohio Maple Producers Association has helped to plan an exciting free family day at the OSU-Mansfield campus on Saturday, August 10th.  We will be giving sugarbush tours in the AM, leading different walks in the afternoon to other demonstration areas on campus, having maple treats and a food truck on site for lunchtime nourishment, and even showcasing some ambassador birds from the Ohio Bird Sanctuary and creepy crawlies from the OSU Bug Zoo.  As an added bonus, if you want to throw down your cash for a entry into our cribbage tournament, bring your A game early and enjoy some friendly competition with fellow attendees before the 3rd annual One Sweet Gathering event officially kicks off.  Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions about this event or the others mentioned in this post.

An early Happy 4th of July to everyone!!

Out of the Woods Seminar

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The Out of the Woods series from Future Generations University in West Virginia hit an important topic several weeks ago, and the recording of “Two Seasons – Sanitation & Tubing“ is now available as a Recording.

The Talk Title “Two Seasons” is a play on this quote from Garnet Whetzel.

“There are only two seasons in a year.  Maple season and getting ready for maple season.”

I am quite sure that every single maple producer exists in this shared reality – the list of things to do is almost certainly greater than the amount of time you have for working on your list.  But there a few things on your annual list that you just cannot afford to ignore!  Keep in mind that a good chunk of this presentation assumes a 3/16th tubing system, but there are lots of great lessons to be learned from the talk.  Chiefly this, compelling evidence is shared on the benefits of sanitation (using the Krueger method with calcium hypochlorite) from a nice experiment out of the Mountain State.  Results from this experiment are followed by a great discussion on the bacteria, yeast, and mold challenges that maple producers face in the woods and in the sugarhouse.

Maple as STEM – PAST Party

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We had an opportunity to table as an Experience Partner at the PAST Foundation‘s STEM of Spirits event this past Friday evening.  What a wonderful event and chance to showcase maple as a local food that supports local communities and is full of elegant and interesting science!

We chose a couple engaging angles to highlight the STEM of maple syrup to our guests.  Attendees learned about the differences in cancer fighting properties between early season Golden Delicate syrup as compared to later season Dark Robust profiles.  An informal poll of taste preference ended in a dead heat with the exact same number of people preferring Golden Delicate as Dark Robust.  Each syrup has its own medical benefits (Read more in our September ’23 Maple REVIEW article), and participants decided the only rationale response was to consume copious amounts of both!  Smart folks.

Another activity invited guests to use a sap hydrometer, digital refractometer, and traditional refractometer to calculate Brix of “sap” from 3 different maple trees.  One tree was a healthy full-crowned sugar maple.  The second was a stressed sugar maple.  A healthy “rilver” represented tree number 3.  A graduated cylinder varied sap output volume, and sap Brix varied by tree species and tree health.  A dry erase marker to record data on the tree canopies and some quick calculations to estimate final syrup output, and we transformed the evening’s guests into researchers.  The quick study’s results suggested that while maple species does matter, managing for healthy trees and forests is the highest priority for maple producers – regardless of maple species composition.

A bit of information about spotted lanternfly and some visuals to help showcase Jones Rule and the boiling process rounded out the display.  We’re excited to see Ohio State Maple continue to build momentum as we continue to expand our maple education and outreach footprint.

Mini Maple Arboretum

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The new additions just keep coming at the OSU-Mansfield sugarbush.  12 trees were planted for a miniature arboretum right off the corner of the new maple pavilion.  With a collection of all the common maple species in Ohio, we are now better equipped than ever to teach tree identification workshops.  Sugar maple, boxelder, silver maple, black maple, red maple, “rilver” maple, Norway maple – single trees of some, multiple representatives of others.

A summer watering schedule, some mulch around their bases, and protection from the local deer herd should give these a great shot at surviving and playing a role in many maple workshops in the future.

Glad to See It Come, Glad to See It Go

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Thanks for Les’ contribution last Monday in his post – Is February the New March?  This is a more Mansfield-centric take on the 2024 season with a more in-depth analysis of statewide Growing Degree Days to compliment last week’s content.

What a season!  That sums it up in all the best and worst ways.  I stand by the words I typed in my 2/19 post – I believe we nailed our tapping date just about perfect.  The first run to follow was a marathon of 7 or 8 straight days, and the second run of the year culminated in our making syrup off the new OSU teaching evaporator for the first time ever.  Though many producers’ woods performed below average in terms of sap sugar, our Brix registered consistently at 2.0.  Talk about some highs.

We knew better.  The weather folks are not infallible, but there was no denying the forecast that lurked.  Warm, warm, and more warm.  But unexpectedly, February 21st was the death blow for our season.  While we were over at Malabar Farms helping out with an NRCS workshop on maple, our pump decided to quit working.  Without vacuum, the productive days of our season were over.  With a full season, we would likely have stayed tapped in until March 4th and posted one of our better season totals.  As it turned out in reality, the 2024 season ended on a low.

Looking more broadly around the state, the progression of Growing Degree Days (GDDs) was alarmingly early yet again.  If there any producers still resistant to the idea of tapping earlier than more traditional dates, then I don’t know what it will take to change minds.

Observe – Click Play for an animation of GDDs from 2021 (below).  Pay attention to 2 data points in particular.  First, the GDDs accumulated through March.  Second, the scale of GDDs on the legend.

Now, you don’t even need to see a similar video of 2024’s GDDs to know we covered lots more ground in fewer days than the previous year’s example.  Long story short, earlier AND hotter.  Hello sap season double whammy, goodbye sanitation!  I don’t believe many producers will be heard pining – “Boy! What I wouldn’t give for another season like 2024!”  And if you did hear such a remark today, then you probably also heard them quip – April Fool’s!!

Maple Events on the Horizon

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Join Associate Professor, Dr. Stephen Matthews to learn about USDA Forest Service’s Climate Change Atlas.  He will introduce this tool that is based on over 2 decades of research with a goal to help us understand the impact of climate change on our trees. When you have heard us talk about red maple’s favorable position in the face of an uncertain future, the work of the Climate Change Atlas is what we are drawing from.  Register for the April 12th webinar HERE.

Future Generations University is offering a webinar this Thursday evening, March 21st at 7 PM.  The Appalachian-based program Out of the Woods hosts guest speaker Dr. Catherine Belisle (Cornell University) and Lindsay Kazarick (Future Generations University) to discuss maple confections and event-based marketing. REGISTER here.

Here’s a little bonus video to enjoy featuring Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest in New York.

SAVE THE DATE for 2024’s Ohio Maple Days – December 7.  We will be shifting locations this year due to a scheduling conflict at our normal venue at Ashland University.  You can look forward to this year’s Ohio Maple Days landing at Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum.

And speaking of events, we hope everyone got to participate in Ohio’s Maple Madness Tour.  Whether by opening up your own operation to visitors or by venturing out on the tour yourself, Maple Madness is a signature springtime event that should not be missed.  We hosted somewhere just shy of 100 folks throughout Saturday, March 2nd at the Ohio State Mansfield campus.  Thanks to all who came, and a BIG THANKS to everyone who led tours of the wetlands, sugarbush, and kept the evaporator steaming all day long.

 

Tapping & Timber: Monthly Maple REVIEW

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After a several months long hiatus from our REVIEW articles, we are going to dive back into a Quebec research 2’fer that examines the effects of tapping on sugar maple tree growth rate and timber accumulation.  The Ohio State Maple team hosted a day’s worth of Maple Madness as a stop along the Ohio Tour less than 48 hours ago.  While giving sugarbush tours, hands down the most frequent question I fielded was whether tapping hurts the trees.  While some research has attempted to answer this question over the past decade or so, 2 relatively new studies out of Quebec take aim on this subject.

The question “does tapping hurt a maple tree?” can be answered from multiple different perspectives.  You might respond by citing information about the small percentage of a maple tree’s overall sap that is harvested through the tapping process, even with a high vacuum system.  You might make an analogy that a taphole is similar to an insignificant injury and point out that healed tapholes are barely visible to the eye just a year or less later and the percentage of compartmentalized wood is miniscule.  You might have another way of replying to that question.  The article “Effect of tapping for syrup production on sugar maple tree growth in the Quebec Appalachians” and the paper “Assessing the effects of sugar maple tapping on lumber production” provide additional insights to this delicate topic.

Before we dive in, a few caveats:

  • Caveat #1 – this issue has been addressed by different studies through different research labs through time, I’m examining these 2 studies today because they are recent and both from the same geographic area, Quebec.  Perhaps we will address some of the other work conducted in this space in future REVIEW articles.
  • Caveat #2 – The studies are from Quebec.  Stated another way, these studies are not directly applicable to Ohio, but we can certainly learn from them regardless.
  • Caveat #3 – both studies are based on tapping recommendations that encourage tapping to begin when a tree is 7.5-9.1 inches in diameter.  This recommendation in comparison to more conservation guidelines that we teach locally of 10″ minimum before tapping layered in with the fact that growth productivity is higher in Ohio than Quebec, and we have additional reason to not assume 1 to 1 transferability of results.

The study that focuses on tree growth rates was conducted by a foursome of researchers (Ouimet et al.) back in 2021.  They examined tapped and untapped trees within 7 Quebec maple woods on vacuum tubing systems.  The normal stringent criteria were applied to ensure trees in each group were as similar as could be except for the main treatment variable: tapped or not tapped.  Ouimet and crew worked off a primary hypothesis that tapping sugar maple trees would remove enough of the non-structural carbohydrates (sugars) that tree growth rates would be higher in untapped trees versus tapped trees.  Restating their hypothesis another way, extracting sap from sugar maples is in direct competition with resources needed for tree growth.

What did they find?  In 6 of the 7 sugar bushes, there was no effect of tapping on tree growth rates.  In the 7th site however, tapped trees grew 33% slower over the tapped year period (10 years) than did the untapped trees.  A partial explanation seemed to be that soils in that particular forest were strongly Ca-deficient; however, similar decreases in tree growth rate were not observed in 2 other woods that also suffered from low Ca levels.  Truth to be told, the team was scratching their heads a bit over the inconsistent results stating the “relatively small NSC [non-structural carbohydrates] allocation to syrup production might explain why we did not find a consistent tree growth response to tapping.”  In the most elementary of terms, tapping did not seem to trouble the majority of trees in the study.

The second study coincidentally also featured a four-person research team, and the research utilized data from 17 different sites within Quebec’s public forests.  Forest stand management scenarios (how and when to harvest trees) and lumber yields were simulated using a model that gathered data from over 2 thousand individual trees.  If taphole-stained maple lumber does in fact have niche value in local and regional niche markets, I would quibble with blanket statements such as the one they provide in the Introduction citing the National Hardwood Lumber Association – “Tap holes are considered defects, and they diminish the manufacturing value of boards.”  But the purpose of the work is clear, does tapping affect traditional lumber value of sugar maple logs?


Photo: Firth Hardwood Export Logs

What did they find?  Unsurprisingly, the answer is yes.  Of course tapping reduces net lumber volume in sugar maples, and tapping reduces the probability of an individual tree yielding a 10 foot saw log.  The details are what I found especially interesting.  Trees in the study were binned into 4 different health categories.  Trees with fungal infections, rot, or noticeable crown dieback were impacted by tapping more than trees that were healthy by visual measures.  While this too is unsurprising, I was most impressed by the findings that tapped sugar maples have a 85-90% chance of still yielding a 10′ saw log.  However, net lumber volume is still markedly reduced by tapping as the vertical segment of the trunk sectioned by the lowest and highest tapholes (or “butt log”) is defect.  Guillemette et al. concede in the very first paragraph of the Discussion that their results do not account for “craftspeople sometimes use these butt logs to produce boards with specific features resulting from tap holes or stain.”  I appreciated this admission.  Even so under a more traditional notion of what is valuable maple lumber, a notable rule of thumb emerges from their Implications for Management.  “Tapping reduces the net standing volume of sugar maple timber by approximately 40% and reduces the harvestable volume after the first 30-year cycle by approximately 40%.”  Economic modelling of one-time profits due to timbering need to be compared to the year-over-year return on investment from sugaring a maple woods, but the study does provide some interesting ways to frame and think about our original question – does tapping hurt a maple tree?

Ohio Maple NPR Soundbyte

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You are never quite sure how a piece of media coverage will turn out after a couple of hours of interaction gets boiled down (yes, that’s a pun) to 4 minutes and 30 seconds.  But I’d say the NPR creative machine did a great job churning out something engaging that highlights work across the state from the past, present, and even into the future.

This is as good of a time as any to remind everyone of Ohio’s Maple Madness weekends on March 2-3 and March 9-10.  You can scan the following QR code off your monitor or visit the Tour Map to plot your own route.

At Ohio State Mansfield, we will be hosting our Maple Madness event on Saturday, March 2nd – we hope to see you there.  Come hungry!