It's cardboard season; ever wonder where it all comes from?

A machine the size of a football field makes paper that becomes boxes. (Photo by Christopher Payne, The New York Times)

The people of Windsor, Wisconsin, pop. 8,000, rejoiced when the village's newsletter announced it would have a separate bin for cardboard recycling, all the more important when more Christmas gifts are bought online and shipped. But where does all that cardboard come from?

The corrugated-paper industry runs trees through a marathon of steps before a nifty box emerges, writes Matthew Shaer of The New York Times: "Before it was the cardboard on your doorstep, it was coarse brown paper, and before it was paper, it was a river of hot pulp, and before it was a river, it was a tree. Probably a Pinus taeda, or loblolly pine, a slender conifer native to the Southeastern United States." 

Shaer met up with Alex Singleton, a manager for International Paper, which produces a third of U.S. boxes. His mission "is to source enough loblollies to help keep IP’s production lines humming." He told Shaer, “You’re sort of always in a race. You learn to get creative.” Singleton manages a group of foresters who "spend much of their time zipping around the Southeast by pickup, using a proprietary smartphone app to monitor tracts of harvestable woodland," Shaer writes.

In the woodyard, the creation begins: "A crane was removing timber from a log truck and feeding it into the bladed mouth of a cylindrical machine known as a debarking drum. . . . It churned and chewed and spit the denuded trees from its rear end," Shaer writes. "Another masticating machine, this one a steel chipper. In went the debarked trees, out came a spray of loblolly pine. . . . chips from the woodyard were entering what’s known as the kraft process (the German word for 'strength')."

Shaer describes the 'paper machine,' which "stretched across almost the entire mill floor and trembled like a space shuttle just before liftoff. . . . Pulp sluiced in and cascaded onto the 'former,' where it was flattened into a paper-like consistency." There are more steps, and the end product is corrugated: "If you’ve stopped to look at an individual panel of corrugate and noticed its resemblance to a deli sandwich. There’s a top and a bottom, and between them is a bunch of ridged or diagonally reinforced filler called 'fluting.' That fluting is what gives a cardboard box its protective quality; without its flutes, corrugate wouldn’t be corrugate at all — it would just be containerboard."

The corrugated cardboard industry is booming, Shaer reports: "In 2021, Amazon shipped $470 billion of goods globally, in an estimated 7.7 billion packages." Happy unpacking!

Next week is National Forest Products Week; bourbon's one

Oct. 17-23 is National Forest Products Week, designated by Congress in 1960 as the third week of October as to recognize the value of American forests and the products they create. "It also acknowledges the value of woodlands, commitment to good stewardship and conservation practices," says a news release from the University of Kentucky, a state more heavily forested than most.

A forest product, imparting color and flavor (Distiller.com photo)

Forests provide timber, water, wildlife habitat, opportunities for recreational activities, take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and add back oxygen. In Kentucky, "Forests provide white-oak wood for [charred] barrels, which impart 70 percent of the flavor and all of the color in bourbon," the release says, giving you a reason to observe National Forest Products Week that may not have occurred to you.

"We see it as a time to recognize and support how important forest and forest products are not to just our daily lives, but to our future," says ForestProud.org, which says it is "committed to making choices that keep forests as forests. . . . By offering renewable, sustainable, plant-based alternatives to plastics, concrete, and fossil fuels, forests and forest products provide some of the most innovative and powerful solutions we have to climate change. And we think that that is something worth supporting."

Interested in making maple syrup? Online workshop series starting Sept. 14 will cover the basics

Photo by Steve Patton, UK
Agricultural Communications

Got maple trees on your property? Like to make some syrup from their sap? Whether you're looking to sell or just make some for your own pantry, the University of Kentucky's upcoming webinar series will cover the basics. UK's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is partnering with the Kentucky Maple Syrup Association and the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development to host four online workshops on Sept. 14, Oct. 14, Oct. 23, and Nov. 6 at various times. 

The workshops are the first part of an effort funded by three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to grow and expand the maple syrup industry in Kentucky, but the online workshops are open to residents of all states, Extension Forester Billy Thomas says. Click here for more information or to register. 

Quick hits: plague chipmunks; farmers' markets importance; what ballads and science fiction tell us about Appalachia . . .

Adorable and, possibly, dangerous.
Alamy Stock Photo by Sam Judy

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Hopefully not coming to a tree near you: the U.S. Forest Service has had to close several top hiking spots on Lake Tahoe because of chipmunks with the bubonic plague (most small-mammal infections are in the West.). A park ranger said wild rodents in the Sierra Nevada commonly carry the virus and advises people to keep their dogs on a leash. Read more here.

A small Black-majority town in Virginia is trying to keep a supermarket chain from building a warehouse there, worrying it could destroy the rural character of their town. Read more here.

To cap off National Farmers Market Week: The markets are growing in their role as essential sources of healthy food for the rich and poor, say two landscape architecture professors. Read more here.

What ballads and science fiction tell us about Appalachia's past, present and future. Read more here.

Rural communities should harness the once-in-a-generation windfall from the American Rescue Plan to invest in and improve school STEM programs, writes a rural education expert. Read more here.

The Agriculture Department is taking applications for loans and grants for rural start-ups, small businesses, non-profits, institutions of higher learning, and more. Read more here.

A new report provides a road map for expanding chestnut agri-forestry in the U.S. Read more here.

The Vera Institute of Justice is inviting applications for grants to rural organizations seeking alternative solutions to incarceration. Read more here.

Journalism chops and receptionist charm will get you a job and a home in West Virginia. Read more here.

Invasive 'crazy worms' threaten trees in the Northeast, could hurt maple syrup production

A crazy worm, distinguishable from common earthworms by the
clitellum, a band around its body (University of Vermont photo)

"Earthworms are often seen as a welcome presence in gardens, and even on fishing hooks. But in the Northeast, experts say invasive 'crazy worms' from Asia are creating havoc in forests — and they say the unusual worms are a danger to animals and plants, and especially to sugar maple trees," Bill Chappell reports for NPR.

Crazy worms, also called jumper worms for their wiggly nature and propensity for jumping right out of your hand, "reproduce rapidly. They also love to tear through the nutritious layer of decomposing leaves and nutrients that blanket the forest floor — a habit that can be very damaging to forests, including maple trees," Chappell reports. "Plus, they alter the composition of the soil, creating a texture that's often compared to coffee grounds. The modified soil is ruined for many native plants, as it's stripped of vital nutrients and prone to increased erosion."

The worms are present in other areas of the U.S., but the Northeast is particularly vulnerable to them because the last Ice Age left it with no native earthworms. Common earthworms have since populated the area, and crazy worms have been around since the 1800s, but it wasn't until recently that their numbers became a problem. Crazy worms resemble common nightcrawlers but are smaller.

"The worms mainly spread within the U.S. through the domestic market, both through the horticulture industry and through their sale as fish bait," Chappell reports. States such as Maine and New York have banned them, but scientists haven't yet found a way to control them. Part of the problem, one scientist said, is that worms' benign reputation makes it difficult to find someone to fund the research.

Maple syrup farmers gearing up for sugaring season; did you know that other trees can produce syrup?

Photo by Sam Yu, Frederick (Md.) News-Post

Though spring is still a ways off, some farmers are already gearing up for harvest. Maple sugar harvest, that is. This time of year, sap begins flowing in trees, but only when temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night, Jason Doris reports for WBNG in Johnson City, New York.

Maples are the most popular source of sugar (and the resulting syrup), but other trees like black walnut, butternut, sycamore, and hickory can also produce niche market syrups, reports The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. 

Researchers at Cornell University and Virginia Tech are studying such non-traditional syrup sources to see if commercial syrup producers can use alternative species cost-effectively. That could provide an off-season source of income for farmers.

Virginia and West Virginia trying to expand black walnut syrup industry; could provide off-season income for farmers

Highland County, Va.
(Wikipedia map)

A bottle of maple syrup is a common sight on breakfast tables all over the nation. How about black walnut syrup, though?

Researchers in Virginia and West Virginia are hoping to expand the growing industry and introduce a locally known product to a larger audience, Casey Febris reports for The Roanoke Times.

Currently, there's only one commercial black-walnut syrup operation in Virginia. It's in Highland County, which is already known regionally for its maple syrup. Walnut syrup is made about the same way as maple syrup, by tapping the trees and boiling the sap. But because walnut sap contains pectin (the substance that makes jelly gel) the filtering process is more difficult. Black walnut trees yield far less sap than maple trees too, so the finished product is more expensive, Febris reports. Since it's such a rare product right now, a gallon of it can go for upwards of $400 online.

"Mike Rechlin, maple commodity specialist for Future Generations University in West Virginia, likes to refer to walnut syrup as an 'untapped resource.' There’s still much to learn about walnut syrup and the most efficient ways to produce it, but he believes it could be a boon for farmers," Febris reports. "Rechlin is researching ways to increase walnut sap production to make it more economically viable. He’s also looking to make it easier to produce, like finding a work-around for the pectin problem." Rechlin often works with Tom Hammett, a Virginia Tech professor who is researching the viability of different kinds of tree sap as syrup sources. Syrup production could provide off-season income for farmers who grow other crops, they say.

Rechlin said that many who have tried walnut syrup say they like it better than maple syrup, and notes that it could be used in specialty high-end foods and cocktails. "I will say that Virginia and West Virginia could be the Vermont of walnut syrup," Rechlin told Febris.

Perhaps a sign of the times: Airbnb rentals generate more income for Vermonters than does maple syrup

Just over a decade after its launch, Airbnb now makes more money for Vermonters than maple syrup production, John Lippman reports for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. According to Airbnb's numbers, Vermont residents brought in $68.8 million in 2019 from renting out their homes through the popular app, up from $48.4 million in 2018.

Meanwhile, maple syrup brought Vermont $54.3 million in 2018, according to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. "Maple syrup production numbers increased 7 percent in Vermont in 2019, but the value of the crop has not been announced," Lippman reports. If the price of maple syrup hasn't gone up since 2018, a 7% production increase would mean a $58.1 million value.

"Call it a healthy sign in how digital technology is reshaping Vermont’s economy. Or call it another dispiriting example in how making a real product just doesn’t count as much anymore," Lippman writes. "Either way, I don’t see it as something to cheer about . . . Call me a sap, but I believe that Vermont maple syrup deserves some of the credit for Airbnb’s success in Vermont. Come for the foliage, stay for the nectar of the gods."

Maple season is arriving in New England; demand for natural syrup has turned cottage industry into a big business

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Vermont Gov. Phil
Scott, flanked by Vermont "Maple Ambassadors" Mark Turco
Jr. and Michelle Poulin, tap a maple. It's still too cold to tap
trees for sap in northern New England. (Maple News)

The business of tapping maple trees for their sap, and using it to make a sugary syrup, has become big business, thanks to increasing demand for natural syrup. Not long ago, "sugaring" was "largely a sideline for dairy and small-scale farmers that fell at a nice spot on the calendar. Now it's become virtually industrialized" with state-of-the-art technology and continues expansion, reports former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner Steve Taylor, who was long among the tree-tappers.

"Operations that once had 2,500 taps may now have 35,000; Somerset County in northwestern Maine has recently seen new operations spring up with 100,000 or more taps, often run by Quebecers who want to get around the provincial quota system," Taylor writes in an email to The Rural Blog. "So the industry is now headed in the same direction as dairy, with production outstripping demand and brokers and other bulk purchasers carrying over inventory from last season and imposing limits on what producers can bring them. The bulk price five years ago hovered close to $3 per pound, now it has settled at below $2." A gallon weighs 11 pounds.

Perdue listens as Kevin Harrison of Georgia Mountain Maples
 explains the workings of his processing system. (Maple News)

Another indication of the industry's size may have been last week's visit by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to "160,000-tap Georgia Mountain Maples, tapping the ceremonial first tree of the 2019 maple season with Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and a group of second graders from a nearby school. It was the first known visit of a sugarhouse by a U.S. agriculture secretary in modern history," Peter Gregg reports for Maple News, a trade journal he started a few years ago – itself another indication of the industry's growth.

Bruce Bascom of Bascom Maple Farms, New Hampshire's top producer, also sells supplies and equipment, and told The Rural Blog that part of the business has reached "a soft spot" due to low prices. "People invested in maple for a lot of emotional and irrational reasons," he said, but the number of taps keeps growing 7 to 10 percent a year as consumption is goes up about 7 percent annually, and he voiced confidence: "In the next 12 to 15 years, the industry's gonna double again." He said it has been boosted by heavy promotion from the Quebec industry and a growing desire of U.S. consumers for natural syrup rather than the "chemical concoctions" sold under popular brands.

Heat up the griddle, maple syrup season is back; N.H. expert cites concerns in the industry

It's beginning to look a lot like maple syrup season. The 2012 Census of Agriculture reported 8,261 maple-producing tree farms in the U.S., 7,139 owned by families or individuals. "While some are operated by farm corporations and other legal entities, in the U.S. it’s most common to find producers who have a hands-on connection to their product," Donna Kallner, a rural northern Wisconsin resident, reports for the Daily Yonder. (Photo: Maple syrup from northern Wisconsin)

"Maple syrup traditionally has been produced on land that’s not particularly well suited to other crops," Kallner writes. "It’s hard to raise corn and soybeans in the stony, sandy soil of northern Wisconsin, or the steep slopes of New England. But we have lots of maple trees. Managing a healthy forest to produce an annual yield has long been part of how farm families make do."

Small producers often use syrup sales to pay land taxes, "so when you patronize a roadside stand selling home-grown syrup, you’re also supporting the local school, fire department, ambulance service, roads, and all the other things funded by property taxes," she writes. It's not a hobby, but most producers should not expect to get rich off producing maple syrup—for about 80 percent of syrup producers, less than 25 percent of total household income comes from farming. Producing maple syrup is hard work, but it's a local food and it's nutritious.

"The higher the concentration of sugar in the sap, the less water that needs to be evaporated to make syrup—which means less boiling time and, for want of a better term, a 'fresher' flavor," she writes. "I’ve had great dark syrup infused with the smoky flavor of the wood fire used under the evaporator, and not-so-great syrups with sour, burnt and other 'off' notes. But in my opinion, nothing beats the flavor of the syrup made next door... Call me sappy, but I prefer my syrup light and sweet and buckets at my feet on a muddy trail through a snowy woods. But you do what you have to to pay the taxes."

Maple producer and journalist Steve Taylor, a former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner and Rural Blog correspondent, says Kallner's story is "a good explainer for the lay audience. Bigger concerns hanging over the industry are the weak Canadian dollar, which is attracting much cheaper syrup from the Quebec cartel into the U.S. wholesale market and has knocked 10-15 percent off the historic highs of a couple of years ago for bulk ('barrel') syrup, plus what some of us fear is over-expansion down here, especially in Vermont where seems like everybody has doubled tap numbers in the past five years and could be heading us onto the path of dairy where there’s too much milk pressing prices downward. We shall see."

Researchers using genetic modification to try to revive American chestnut trees

Researchers in the American Chestnut Research & Restoration Project at State University of New York-Syracuse who have created genetically modified chestnut trees are hoping to help revive the tree that has been mostly wiped out by a fungus, Jill Neimark reports for NPR. "Researchers have bequeathed the chestnut a highly protective gene that bananas, cocoa, wheat and barley have already evolved on their own. So far the transgenic seedlings are proving to be at least as resistant to blight as the hybrid or Chinese chestnuts currently under cultivation in the U.S." (SUNY photo: Linda McGuigan examines a batch of transgenic American chestnut plantlets in a high-light chamber)

Other groups who have worked to revive the tree have been slowed "by the fact that a panoply of seven genes protects the Asian tree, and all must transfer," Neimark writes. "Some chestnuts also only tend to succumb to blight after five or ten years, so the foundation must grow the latest generation of trees—which are only 1/16th Chinese—for at least a decade before they can feel confident enough to release seeds to the public."

At SUNY, "scientists transplanted a gene that wheat, barley, cocoa and some fruits already use to protect themselves against fungus," Neimark writes. "The gene makes an enzyme to degrade an acid produced by the fungus, rendering the fungus harmless. Using special laboratory techniques, the scientists transplanted this gene into chestnut embryos, harvested the few cells that took up the gene and used those cells to grow a new embryo, nourishing it with all the nutrients it needs to become a 'plantlet' or seedling."

"The first generations of plantlets proved hardy but not fully immune, so the scientists replaced a genetic 'dimmer' switch inside the gene to turn it up so it would produce more enzyme," Neimark writes. "The latest generation of plantlets have proved more resistant than American chestnut seedlings and hybrid seedlings, according to SUNY forest biotechnologist Andy Newhouse. And, he says, the newer transgenic trees have a similar level of blight resistance as Chinese chestnuts."

Newhouse said they have about 1,000 plants, some two to three years old and as tall as six feet, Neimark writes. "The ultimate plan is to plant about 10,000 transgenic seedlings and grow them big enough to produce enough pollen to pollinate other 'wild' and vulnerable American chestnuts." (Read more)

After waiting out cold winter, Northeast producers jump into maple sugaring season

The unusually cold winter delayed the start of maple sugaring season in the Northeast. Now that the weather has warmed up, sugaring season is underway. In 2013, the U.S. produced nearly 3.25 million gallons of maple syrup, up 70 percent from 2012, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. Forty percent of all maple syrup comes from Vermont, but maple trees can be tapped anywhere. New York produces 18 percent, Maine 14 percent, and Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Connecticut also produced commercial maple syrup. (Read more)

Will Parson, photographer for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and white River Junction, Vt., chronicles the process of sugaring through a video of farmer Steve Killam, who has been sugaring for decades. (Read more)

Revival of valuable chestnut trees moves on 2 tracks

"The salvation of the American chestnut tree may rest in the hands of two groups with two very different approaches" to overcoming the chestnut blight fungus that wiped out almost all the huge, valuable streets in North America in the middle of the 20th Century, Greenwire reports, picking up a story by Michael Wines in The New York Times.

In the most widely reported approach, the American Chestnut Foundation is planting thousands of hybrid trees (1/16 Chinese chestnut) on reclaimed mine sites in Pennsylvania "to see whether the trees can survive in the wild, where predators lurk and other trees compete for nutrients and light." Researchers also fear that the hybrid trees may lose their resistance to the blight as they mature.

The other approach is being conducted by scientists at the State University of New York-Syracuse, who have created a tree genetically "modified with a gene from wheat that enables it to produce a blight-fighting enzyme," Greenwire reports. (Times photo by Heather Ainsworth: Charles A. Maynard of SUNY-Syracuse's College of Environmental Science and Forestry walks among genetically modified seedlings)

The hybrid trees resist the oxalic acid produced by the fungus by "building a wall around the fungus before it can secrete enough acid to encircle the tree," while the genetically modified trees have a wheat gene that "manufactures an enzyme that renders oxalic acid harmless, stopping the fungus before it can kill," Wines writes.

Both groups are encouraged by the progress of the trees. Where trees have been planted, 14,000 potentially blight-resistant chestnut seedlings are sprouting with thousands of other hardwoods, Wines reports. William A. Powell, professor and forest biotechnologist at SUNY-Syrcause, told Wines that once the genetically modified trees are approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be planted in a controlled field, it will take about two years for them to be prime and regulated, and petitions could be filed to lift federal restrictions on where they could be planted. They hope to begin planting the trees in a controlled field by the fall. (Read more)

Perhaps coincidentally, Natasha Haverty of North Country Public Radio has a nice story on a couple in Russell, N.Y., who planted two chestnut seedlings 28 years ago and have watched them reach a height of 60 feet. Todd and Nancy Alessi aren't part of the organized effort to overcome the blight, "but from their trees, Todd's been able to sprout hundreds of seedlings and he's giving them away to friends and neighbors, and if those fare as well, more people may get to witness the spectacle of a fully-grown thriving chestnut in their lifetime, a look at the world as it used to be," Haverty reports.

Southern Illinois tipster mistakes maple syrup collection operation for meth lab

"The equipment used to make maple syrup looks like the equipment people use to manufacture meth," and that led a Southern Illinois police tipster to the wrong conclusion, reports Jason Hibbs of WPSD-TV in Paducah, Ky.

Maple trees can be tapped for syrup anywhere, not just in Northern states, but the practice is less common the farther south you go, and the anonymous tipster who saw the equipment in Union County, Illinois, and called the cops. They saw it was just a maple tap, set by the family of Laura Benson for their own use.

Benson "said she never thought about selling the sweet syrup, but in small town America, gossip travels fast and the sweet syrup quickly turned into the talk of the town," Hibbs reports. So many people have asked to buy some, Benson said maybe the mixup will be the start of a 'sweet' new business. . . . Benson said she's glad people cared enough to call the sheriff." (Read more)

Farm groups want Supreme Court to exclude forestry activities from Clean Water Act permitting

A group of farm organizations last week filed a friend-of-the court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Clean Water Act's permitting requirements for stormwater runoff from forestry activities, Farm Progress reports. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Pork Producers Council and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives are urging the court to exempt stormwater runoff from forestry activities from Clean Water Act permitting. (American Agriculturist photo)

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled the Environmental Protection Agency's silviculture rule invalid. The groups explain in their brief that Congress decided in its 1987 Clean Water Act amendments that stormwater from agriculture and forestry "has always been intentionally excluded from federal permit requirements," Farm Progress reports. The groups say the logging shouldn't be considered an industrial activity, which means its stormwater discharges must be approved under the EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

American Farm Bureau General Counsel Ellen Steen said Congress has never allowed EPA to mandate particular forestry practices because Congress "has always recognized that stormwater runoff from these activities . . . is best left to state and local authorities." (Read more)

Maple industry booming, due to Quebec-set prices

The maple-syrup industry is undergoing a "dramatic expansion" in the Northeast, thanks to high prices set by Canadians, reports Steve Taylor, who returned to his former pursuits of sugaring and journalism after many years as New Hampshire agriculture commissioner.

"Ground zero" for the boom is Franklin County, Vermont (Wikipedia map), "where all of the major manufacturers of maple equipment have their operations and where producers are expanding at a brisk pace, some with up to 20,000 new taps coming on line this year," Taylor reports, quoting Brad Gillilan, an executive of Leader Evaporator, the nation’s largest manufacturer of sap evaporators: “The industry in the U.S. is as big as it’s ever been, and it’s growing all over.”

"Syrup production the United States has been expanding at the rate of 10 per cent per year over the past five years from new taps coming on line, and then there’s another five percent increase in production coming from the aggressive adoption of new technologies, including improved tubing systems, higher vacuum, more powerful reverse osmosis equipment and new evaporators with far greater fuel efficiency," Taylor reports in a story first written for Lancaster Farming.

Photo by John Russ, Bangor Daily News

He writes that syrup prices are "buoyed" by the Quebec provincial maple board, "which controls the pricing and sets quotas for how much all maple producers in the province can make." That, in effect, establishes a floor price for all of North America because about three-fourths of the maple syrup produced on the continent comes from Quebec.

The market opened earlier because of the unusually warm winter. "This winter’s strange weather pattern has oldtime maple producers scratching their heads, unable to recall an earlier full-throttle start to the sap flow," Taylor reports. In some locales sap ran well during warm spells in January."

Looking ahead, Taylor sees "tightening of food safety laws, which could force many maple operations to upgrade their facilities." Citing Bruce Bascom of Acworth, N.H., "one of the largest producers, packers and distributors of maple products in the Northeast," he writes, "Vermont’s new voluntary sugarhouse registration program points the way toward inspection requirements that will have to be met before a producer’s crop will be accepted for purchase." (Read more)

Weather may be good news for maple syrup season in New England, until the sap goes 'buddy'

While much of the Northeast may still not have recovered from the deluge of snow it received this winter, spring is just around the corner and with it comes maple syrup season. A recent run of warm days has tempted many syrup producers in Maine to begin tapping trees, but "other producers, particularly those in northern Maine, are cautiously watching an approaching cold stretch and will wait until after it passes to collect the sap," Sharon Kiley Mack of the Bangor Daily News reports. Last year was not kind to maple syrup producers, and early reports say this year may bring more of the same. (BDN photo by John Clark Russ: Lee Kinney drills a tree)

"Last year, maple producers suffered through a mixed season — early in the southern part of the state and later up north," Mack writes. Producers usually begin tapping trees around March 20, but weather cause that date to move almost a month early last season. Eric Ellis of Maine Maple Products in Madison, Maine, said the weather this year likely signals a similar early season. "We need temperatures of 20 or so in the night, followed by 40 to 45 in the day, without a strong wind, for a good sap flow," Kathy Hopkins, maple syrup specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, told Mack, noting "when daytime temperatures are consistently in the 60s, the buds begin to form and the sap tastes 'buddy.'" (Read more)

For the first time in two decades Richard Focht, an upstate New York maple syrup producer, had to buy snowshoes so he could walk through the forest and set up his taps, Sarah Bradshaw of the Poughkeepsie Journal reports. Last year was one of the worst seasons in recent history for upstate New York producers because spring came too fast, Focht said. "It was cold and it got warm all of the sudden," Focht, said. "It was real bad last year. The entire season was one week." (Read more)

In Rhode Island producers are hopeful the cold winter will mean big returns for them this year, Thomas J. Morgan of The Providence Journal reports. "The weather has had a very positive effect," said Peter Susi, marketing supervisor of the state Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Agriculture. "The maple flow likes cold nights and sunny days." Gibby Fountain, who owns Spring Hill Sugarhouse in Richmond, notes the snow cover for much of the winter prevented a frost that would have frozen the tree roots. "Any day we get temperatures above freezing, the sap runs vigorously," she said. (Read more)