How sweet it isn't

Ryan Foster

Trudging through waist-deep snow, trampling through the sugar bush trying to find pipes which have long been buried by yet another merciless winter, the maple syrup season has yet to start, but Nova Scotian maple syrup producer Perry Munro works diligently to get ready.

Munro has been involved in this industry for 25 years and every one is different. Some years, his sugar bush produces a lot of sap, some years are dismal. Munro's operation consists of 2,500 trees, which he says is relatively small.

This season was particularly short. "It lasted about four weeks, but the sap only ran a couple of days each week," said Munro.

"It was just too cold."

Over 130,000 litres of the sweet stuff was produced in Nova Scotia last year. The season typically runs from the first week of March until early April. However, the length of the season is totally dependent on the weather.

"Ideal conditions are warm days with cold nights," says Munro. He runs Mountain Maple in Black River, Kings County N.S."To get the season started, we need a frost at night and warm days. This gets the sap running. And when the weather cooperates, the trees produce sap."

If the weather fails to comply, the season can be as short as two weeks. Munro says the season has been known to extend itself, but only if the weather agrees. If there's a frosty night followed by a warm night, the sap stops running and waits until the weather gets back on track, he said.

The weather is the key, says Dave Chapeskie who is the Ontario Agro Forestry specialist.

"This industry, of all agricultural enterprises, has the tightest window of operation and is quite vulnerable to adverse weather conditions."

The ice storm which rocked Quebec, Ontario and parts of the Maritimes in 1998 hurt the industry.

Chapeskie says it is still too early to really realize the full impact of the storm on the industry. However, some findings show it was very damaging in particular sectors.

Two of the questions most asked by producers since the storm were: How will the storm affect the health of the trees, and how will productivity be impacted? Answering those questions may take years. It is too soon to truly tell, says Chapeskie.

Early indications are the sweetness of the sap has not been affected, but the storm did affect tree productivity, in some cases by up to 50 per cent, in hard-hit areas. These areas, mostly in Quebec and Ontario, may suffer from severe damage, such as dead and broken limbs as well as dead trees. A 25 per cent reduction in production has been noted in sugar bushes which avoided the brunt of the storm, such as the Maritimes. These areas only experienced what Chapeskie calls "normal wear and tear."

In hard-hit areas, tree mortality rates are showing quite an increase, he says.

"Mortality rates are up five to 15 per cent in some places, this is way up."

Although the storm did send shock waves through some areas of the industry, they have rebounded well. Only a few maple producers have been lost over the last couple of years due to the damage caused by the storm.

The industry has gotten back on its feet, Chapeskie said. All three levels of government provided some measure of disaster relief to aid those affected.

Payments were made to help make up for the loss of trees, as well as to help buy new equipment and help in sugar bush clean-up.

"Many producers affected by the storm are now back to a reasonable level of production," Chapeskie said.
Munro's maple operation did not suffer as much as from the ice storm as Quebec and Ontario, but he noticed a little decrease in productivity.

The year directly following the ice storm, Mountain Maple had to take 30 per cent of its trees out of use. The trees were used again the following season.

The storm broke branches and covered some tap lines in debris on the Munro farm.

"The branches which broke off hung up in the trees for a few years and then fell down and knocked down tap lines."

Munro says the branches will continue to fall for probably another five years, after which time his sugar bush should be fully recovered.

Asked about how this season was Munro said, "Very, very short." On the other side of the coin is heat. Global warming could become a serious problem for the maple industry.

It has "great potential" to affect the industry in a negative way, said Chapeskie. No studies or research are underway to see what problems the global warming may present. However, Chapeskie says,"studies should be done to find out what could one day happen as a result of global warming."

"They (the studies) could serve as a barometer for the industry," he said.