There’s one thing we’re certain about in New England: Despite upstarts like Michigan and Wisconsin, this is the Land of Maple Syrup. (Counting New York state as honorary New England for the moment)
But climate change, as has been reported many times, will be hard on our sugar maple trees. Wrong weather patterns, invasive species, changing soil conditions – you name it.
This raises the alarming possibility that parts of the country out West might take on the tree-syrup crown, reports Axios (in a typical short, bullet-point piece):
Driving the news: A research collaborative based in Utah, New Mexico and Montana is using a $500,000 grant from the USDA to explore and foster the development of maple sugaring in those states and nearby ones. The grant comes from the USDA’s Acer program, a 5-year-old effort to expand the domestic maple syrup industry into new parts of the country.
Read the whole thing here.
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I grew up in SW Michigan. The local maple syrup was typically Dark to Very Dark and was good. Lack of scale made it expensive and uncompetitive.