Climate Change Is Coming For Your Maple Syrup
PETERSHAM, Mass. — Blue bags hang off the trees lining the road to Joshua Rapp’s sugar shack.
On a brisk late February day, some bulge with maple sap while others sport little sap icicles. The blue bags are a little less romantic than the metal pails that Rapp’s forbearers hung off trees, but they have the benefit of being easily weighed and transported.
Measuring those blue bags is crucial for Rapp, a scientist at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Mass., who is studying the impact climate change is having on syrup availability and quality. Sugar maples generally have to be about 40 years old before they're ready to be tapped, which means the knowledge scientists are building now is incredibly valuable for the future of the industry.
“We’ve been having huge flows early this season,” Rapp said, standing next to a maple syrup boiler as a sweet steam rose from the bubbling vat of syrup through the vent in the roof of the sugar shack.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-maple-syrup-20178