Urban Sugaring

by Eric Olson

You may think maple syrup can only be made by the hardy farmers of Vermont, but my kids learned differently several years ago, when we moved back to New England from Costa Rica.  I had tapped sugar maples while teaching environmental education in Minnesota, so it seemed natural as we settled into our new life in West Newton to scout around for maple trees.  This proved as easy as falling off a log. Our neighbors on the right have a gnarly old sugar maple that may someday grow so big it will displace part of our driveway.  And the neighbors on the left have a towering Acer saccharum (the scientific name) that has grown straight as an arrow for 100 plus years, and is now one of the tallest trees for miles around.  Permission was secured to tap at will, by our first spring in Newton, we were collecting sap and making syrup.

You can do this for under a nickel per tree (not counting the energy cost to run the stove), but first a word of caution.  The growing and consumption of any urban plant foods raises concerns about soil contaminants. Heavy metals like lead and arsenic were used as pesticides in Newton's apple orchards long ago.  Lead was also an ingredient in gasoline. We were proposing to get sap from big trees right on Watertown Street, aka Route 16.  And just steps away from several houses, where lead was typically used in the paint.  Heavy metals are elements so unlike DDT and most other synthetic chemicals they simply never break down.  Recent research at Dartmouth has confirmed that old orchards now used as suburban housing tracts contain worrisome levels of these chemicals.   

We found a local testing lab to analyze our saps and syrups for residues of these toxins.  The results were favorable -- lead was detected, but far below Vermont's maximum permissible level in maple syrup.  We broke out the pancake mix as soon as we opened the envelope from the lab!  Our results should not be taken as a green light for all of Newton, however, since it is the exact location of orchards that determines the presence of lead in the soil today. Testing is essential. 

Here are the steps involved in sugaring.

First, find a big sugar maple, using a field guide to trees.  Norway maples will not do at all, and silver and red maples make a much less concentrated sap.  Sugar maples are handsome trees with a distinctive leaf shape (think Canadian flag) and big, gray, platy bark. The leaves turn brilliant orange in the fall.

 

The author's son Eli Olson presents the two-spout sugar maple on Watertown Street, tapped by the family each spring

Next make a spile.  Take a 3/4 inch dowel, drill a hole about 3 inches deep into one end with a 1/4 inch drill bit, then saw off the drilled piece.  You should have a perfect little wooden tube that you must taper a bit at one end with a sharp knife.  The whittled end must be perfectly round, so you may need to make a few of these before you get it right.  

Now locate a brace and bit (a kind of old drill).  The bit diameter must be a little smaller than the wide end of the dowel, but a little larger than the tapered end.  On an early spring day, sometimes as early as February, when the days are just above 32 F but the nights are still cold, drill a hole no more than three inches deep into the bark of the tree, pointing the bit slightly upwards as you go so that the sap drips out well.  Pick out stray bits of sawdust and bark, and firmly tap in your wooden pipe, but not so hard that you split the bark. The spile must be snug or sap will leak out around it.  About 1 inch of spile should go into the hole, with two inches protruding.  If it’

s warm a few drops of sap will fall from the tube within minutes. Cut a hole in the side of an empty clean one-gallon plastic milk jug, set it on your spile, and secure it snugly with wire around the tree.  Taste the cold sap, a slightly sweet refreshing drink.

Finally, transfer your sap to pots on the stove and boil away for a long while.  Check the Cornell University maple syrup website for details. It takes 40 cups of sap to make one cup of syrup.  Watch closely once the sap boils down and starts to brown, so as not to fill your house with smoke and a charred sugar smell.  Use a candy thermometer. When it’

s syrup, the boiling liquid will make a tan foam of very fine bubbles. If you boil too long at this point you will have maple sugar when it cools---you just need to experiment some.

At best, we get a couple of quarts of syrup from our two weeks of urban sugaring, with two taps in each of those two big trees.  Its not volume that counts, though, but the good fun of getting an amazing sweet food from nature at a time of year when our backyard garden plots are barely emerging from under crusty old snow. 

Sugar maples are found only in the northeastern part of North America as far west as Minnesota, and their range will shift northwards as the planet warms, so enjoy this tradition while you can.

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A “Sticky” Issue: No More Vermont Maple Syrup?

By Susan Bellerose

Much has been written about climate change caused by the build up of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases that are the by-products of burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.  Many of us have read about the melting of the polar ice caps, and the increasing incidence of insect-borne diseases and extreme weather-related events such as droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes that have been attributed to global warming.  A less well known but important local by-product of global warming is the reduction in maple syrup production in New England due to the northern migration of forests.

Over the next thirty to fifty years, the optimal growing range for many tree species is expected to migrate northward by as much as 100 to 300 miles to higher altitudes in response to the predicted doubling of greenhouse gases.  Trees can “migrate” to cooler, more tolerable growing climates when their seeds are spread by the wind or by animals.  Trees that have seeds that are spread by birds, such as oak trees, are able to migrate northward at a faster rate than those trees whose seeds are spread by the wind, such as maples.  Some tree species will have difficulty thriving in their current environment but may not be able to migrate quickly enough to survive, which will result in a reduction in biodiversity of both plants and animals.

In the Northeast, warmer, drier winters combined with other factors such as air pollution and pest infestations are putting stress on the sugar maple.  The sugar maple is not able to migrate quickly to adapt to the warmer climate because its seeds are spread by the wind.  Some scientists are hypothesizing that sugar maples may nearly die out in New England over the next century.  This will not only affect the brilliant colors that we see on the mountains in northern New England in the Fall, but will also have consequences for one of America’s favorite foods:  maple syrup. 

We are already seeing the effects of global warming on maple syrup production.  In the 1950’s, the U.S. produced 80% of the world’s maple syrup, and Canada produced the remaining 20%.  Due to climate warming combined with technological changes in how syrup is collected, this ratio has reversed.  Now Canada produces 80% of the world’s maple syrup, and the U.S., primarily New England and New York, produces only 20%.  Vermont in particular has been affected, as it has a sizeable seasonal workforce devoted to syrup production and relies on the income from sales of syrup and related products.

An explanation of how maple syrup is produced helps to understand how climate change is affecting the syrup business here in the U.S.  Maple syrup flows best when the temperature is below 25 degrees Fahrenheit at night, and above 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.  As air temperatures drop below freezing, the sugar maple pulls sap out of its branches and into the roots.  When temperatures move above freezing, the cycle is reversed, and sap flows out of the roots back into the branches, and out of any “wound” in the tree, such as the tap hole cut for syrup production.  In order for the tree to convert stored starch to sugar in the sap, there needs to be an extended period of below freezing temperatures.  As the climate in the Northeast has continued to warm, this has reduced the number of freeze-thaw cycles that are needed for sap to flow.  When the transition from winter to spring is accelerated with early spring warming, this causes the sugar maple buds to open early, resulting in bitter sap, and less syrup production overall due to a shorter sugaring season. 

It will be a pity if the sugar maples in New England die out because they are unable to adapt quickly enough to the warming climate.  Hopefully the next time we pour syrup over our pancakes or waffles, we will be reminded of how easily climate change can affect our everyday lives and the “sweet” pleasures in life that we take for granted!

Susan Bellerose holds degrees from Mt. Holyoke College and Columbia Business School and is a resident of Newton.

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How to stop the spread of invasive plants

By Florrie Funk

 

Many of Newton’s residents are not aware of the crisis threatening biodiversity in our parks and their own back yards. Although there is no easy solution to the problem of invasive plants, here are some things that citizens can do to help:

·       Learn to identify invasive plant species and remove them from your property.

·       If your property abuts a park or wooded area, be sure that your non-native landscaping materials don’t spread beyond your property line. 

·       Never dump yard waste into parks or conservation areas.  Many common landscaping plants, especially ground covers such as English Ivy, Winter Creeper, Pachysandra and Vinca, reproduce vegetatively, so cuttings can root and spread aggressively. Walk along the boundaries of Newton’s conservation lands to see what happens when homeowner are careless about this.

·       Learn about native plants and use them in your landscaping. Your yard can be part of the solution to ecosystem fragmentation.

·       Encourage city officials to develop a plan to remove invasive plants and to reintroduce native plants on city property.  Learn from other communities how they trained personnel, organized volunteer efforts, and obtained funding.

·       Be aware that cautious and strategic use of herbicides may sometimes be necessary.  Many species resprout with renewed vigor even when they are cut down to ground level.  Removal of root systems can be impractical and destructive to soil structure and other organisms, and soil disturbance usually increases germination of invasive plant seeds. There is a small risk of unwanted side effects in the use of herbicides, but the alternative may be a devastating and irreversible loss of species. Check the National Park Service’s Fact Sheets (nps.gov/plants/alien) and The Nature Conservancy’s “Weed Control Methods Handbook” (tncweeds.ucdavis.edu)

 

Florrie Funk, florriemfunk@aol.com assisted with the 2006 Newton comprehensive plant survey. This article is a follow up to her March 2007 article “The importance of removing invasive plants”.

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Listen to the howl: Mexican gray wolf reintroduced in the Southwest

By John Linehan and Brooke Wardrop

 

 

The howl of the Mexican gray wolf has not been heard in more than 30 years in the forests and fields of the Southwest. Once common throughout western Texas, southern New Mexico, central Arizona and northern Mexico, the Mexican gray wolf, the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies of the North American gray wolf, was completely eliminated from the wild, surviving in only small captive populations.

Thanks to successful conservation programs throughout the past 27 years, a brighter future has been procured for these wolves, and their howl is beginning to be heard once again.

In a unique partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state agencies, several zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and other partners, Zoo New England is participating in a reintroduction program to release captive-reared Mexican gray wolves in remote parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

Zoo New England began participating in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) in 1998. The SSP is a consortium of institutions working together to breed captive Mexican wolves for reintroduction and recovery in the Southwest. Last year, a pair at Stone Zoo in Stoneham produced eight pups, all of which are thriving. The SSP has now reached its captive population goals, and soon Zoo New England will be translocating some members of its pack to other zoos.

In captivity, close bonds between wolves and keepers are avoided because of the reintroduction program. Their survival ultimately depends on active avoidance of human contact. The animals cannot become reliant on people for food. While in captivity, the wolves do not lose their natural instincts, but hunting skills need to be honed before being released into the wild. Wolves that are slated for release are sent to large pre-release centers with native prey. Typically, these wolves and their offspring are released into the wild together as a pack.

In 1976, the Mexican gray wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Today, there are approximately 300 Mexican gray wolves in existence. Most were born in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries in the US and Mexico, and more are being born in the wild each year. The recovery of these animals has been given the highest priority.

Based on experience gained from other wolf recovery programs, scientists are optimistic about the program’s eventual success. Captive-reared wolves have learned to survive after release and successfully form groups, reproduce and raise their pups. They are also forming new pairs on their own, indicating a healthy wolf population.

There are still challenges. At the 2006 Mexican Gray Wolf SSP Annual meeting held in Alpine, Ariz., the heart of the wolf release area, attendees discussed the opposition to the reintroduction program by some area residents, particularly ranchers concerned that the program will increase predation on livestock and family pets.

The task of locating the radio-collared wolves is daunting. Biologists track the wolves in rugged, often steep, terrain. U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents must deal with wolves that leave the approved recovery areas, which do not have fenced boundaries. Sometimes it is possible to recapture and return the animals to the recovery area, but lethal removal is sometimes necessary to ensure the species’survival in the wild.

The Mexican gray wolf’s role in the ecosystem is filled by no other predators. Black bears and cougars roam these areas of the Southwest, but they don’t fill the wolf’s niche. Elk are a major source of food for the Mexican gray wolf. As the wolves disappeared, some areas suffered from an overabundance of elk, which led to environmental degradation. Keeping a balance between elk and wolves is crucial to the environmental health of those areas.

Mexican gray wolves weigh between 50-80 pounds and are about 5-feet long with a relatively large head. The coat is often mottled or patchy and varies from gray and black to brown and buff. They have complex social behavior, living in tightly organized packs and communicating through howling vocalizations, body posturing and scent marking. These animals work effectively together to adapt to most environments where there is prey, which includes deer, jackrabbit, mice and peccary.

As a critical predator, wolves have a profound effect on the ecosystem. When an ecosystem is out of balance there are a host of negative effects. Returning the wolves to their natural habitat helps to restore the environmental health of these areas.

John Linehan is President & CEO, Zoo New England and Brooke Wardrop is Publications & Grants Manager, Zoo New England

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