In 2019, a team of extension and research faculty from the School of Environment and Natural Resources (CFAES) collaborated with Future Generations University in West Virginia and Penn State University to receive a grant award from USDA’s ACER program. The awarded project’s name is “Leveraging Education and Research to Promote Maple Syrup Production in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”
The tri-state effort is funded for 3 years and seeks to understand current production, marketing, and sales behavior of the states’ producers and craft outreach and educational resources focused on increasing production levels and sustainability of maple operations across the region. Additionally, the team plans to expand its focus beyond just current producers to also include rural woodland owners and natural resource professionals such as foresters.
A second substantial ACER award was received in 2020 to examine the sugaring potential of maple trees that are NOT sugar maples. We are excited to see how far that research has already progressed at the Ohio State Mansfield sugarbush, and we could not be more pleased on how other of the research objectives are being met as well.