Maple syrup season off to a running start Producer links global warming, early sap flow

Maine maple producers are off to an early start this season – at least in the northern part of the state.

Up north, producers have been tapping trees for a couple of weeks now, Robert Smith of Skowhegan said Saturday. Smith is president of the Maine Maple Producers Association.

The early start of the season is not particularly unusual, Smith said, but global warming is definitely playing a role.

“I can see the change,” he said, noting that he has been in the business since 1964.

Ninety percent of Maine’s maple syrup comes from the northern part of the state, he said. There are about 50 producers in northern Maine, he said, but he did not have the statistics for the total number of producers in Maine. The remaining 10 percent are scattered around the central and southern portions of Maine.

Smith plans to start tapping his 12,000 trees beginning today, he said. The sap season generally lasts about 30 days, he said, before the trees seal up.

During his career, Smith has seen the sap begin running early and then freeze up for two weeks.

“You’ve got to play the weather,” he said, pointing out that 40-degree days with 20-degree nights are the prime ingredients for drawing sap. “You’ve got to be ready when the weather is right – this is early.”

In neighboring New Hampshire, maple sugar shack owners are hustling to get their trees tapped for what’s turning into an early syrup season there.

Recent warm days and cool nights have started the sap flowing several weeks earlier than usual in some parts of the Granite State, according to Steve Taylor, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture.

Sap usually begins flowing during the second week of March in New Hampshire, with the season lasting about six weeks. In recent years, about a quarter to a third of the state’s maple producers started tapping in late February.

Though the season appears to be off to an early start, Taylor said it’s too early to predict whether it will be a good year for the quantity and quality of maple syrup. That will depend on the weather in the next few weeks.

Last year was a disappointment for many maple sugar businesses throughout northern New England. Deep snow and a cold spring kept the sap from flowing and kept some producers from sugaring altogether.

In central and southern Vermont, some maple sugarers are already boiling their sap into syrup, thanks to the season’s warm weather and light snow cover.

Vermont, the country’s largest maple sugar producer, had its second-worst year on record in 2001. The 275,000 gallons of syrup it produced was down 40 percent from the previous year.

New Hampshire’s maple production also was down 40 percent and Maine saw a 20 percent drop.

Bangor Daily News reporter Leanne M. Robicheau contributed to this report.