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Sugar maple growth in relation to nutrition and stress in the northeastern United States

Sugar maple, Acer saccharum, decline disease is incited by multiple disturbance factors when imbalanced calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and manganese (Mn) act as predisposing stressors. Our objective in this study was to determine whether factors affecting sugar maple health also affect growth as estimated by basal area increment (BAI). We used 76 northern hardwood stands in northern Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, USA, and found that sugar maple growth was positively related to foliar concentrations of Ca and Mg and stand level estimates of sugar maple crown health during a high stress period from 1987 to 1996. Foliar nutrient threshold values for Ca, Mg, and Mn were used to analyze long-term BAI trends from 1937 to 1996. Significant (P <= 0.05) nutrient threshold-by-time interactions indicate changing growth in relation to nutrition during this period.

Sugar Maple Health and Management

Most of us understand how to tap trees, gather sap and produce maple syrup. Yet, one of the most important and least thought about tasks of a sugar bush owner is maintaining the health of the sugar maples. To do that effectively, the majority of us can greatly benefit from the help of a professional forester.

Sugar Maple Sap Yields Using One or Two Tapholes Per Tree

Studies currently underway at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC) are examining the effects of accumulating internal taphole damage on the ability to support future tapping, as well as related subjects such as the effects high vacuum sap extraction might have on tree growth, all with the goal of developing new sustainable tapping guidelines. However, along with focusing on the possible negative effects of tapping and sap extraction, it is important to examine how certain practices might lead to greater sap yields.

Sugar Maple Tree Improvement Program

Maple producers and rural landowners throughout the maple syrup producing regions of the Northeast have expressed interest in acquiring improved sugar maple seedings for future sap production. A sugar maple tree improvement program for high sap concentration began in the 1960s under the direction of the USDA Forest Service.

Sugar Maple/Ginseng Research Projects

This project was conducted to determine if ginseng could be cultivated in a sugar maple forest for alternative income.

Sugar Profiles of Maple Syrup Grades

Although many analyses of the chemical composition of maple syrup have been conducted, relatively little information exists on the differences in composition of the individual syrup grades. As a first step in acquiring this information we performed a study to determine the characteristic sugar composition of each maple syrup grade.

Sugarbush Management and Chainsaw Safety

Maple production requires sugarmakers possess a diverse set of skills in order to tend the forest resource and maintain a productive sap collection system. Maintaining a healthy, diverse sugarbush that maximizes its growth potential requires periodic vegetation management activity. Also known as thinning, vegetation management is the process of reducing competition for light, water and nutrients of crop trees. Felling trees is the key activity in vegetation management and may be done by logging professionals in support of formal forest management plan objectives or by the sugarmaker or landowner on an as needed basis and including response to extreme weather events.

Sugarbush Mapping: Finding information to assist in forest management and planning in the sugarbush

Technological advances by maple equipment manufacturers, continued outreach and education by local, state, federal, and provincial maple organizations, and widespread adoption of new management practices by producers have revolutionized the maple industry over the last 20 years. The design and layout of sap collection systems and advances in vacuum pumps and releasers has resulted in higher per tap sap yields well beyond the old standards. Increased per tap volume has been matched with modern high brix reverse osmosis systems and efficiency gains in evaporators, pushing the economic potential of making maple syrup to new heights. Value-added products, niche marketing and branding, and social media and online platforms, coupled with health conscious and savvy consumers,have altered the retail sales landscape and linked rural maple producers to consumers around the world.

Sugarbush Mapping: What’s in your woods? Measuring density

Looking around your woods youÕll see that there are far more trees on the landscape than you have time to measure. The science of forestry has taught us that similar stands (ones that have the same species composition, size classes, productivity, and management history) do not need to undergo a 100% census to get an accurate picture of what is there. Foresters use sampling methods that inventory stands to get an accurate representation of what is in them and the quality of the resource.