The production of maple syrup, a common cottage industry in Geauga County, may be in danger from climate change, said Les Ober, a maple syrup producer and agriculture educator for The Ohio State University extension office.

The production of maple syrup, a common cottage industry in Geauga County, may be in danger from climate change, said Les Ober, a maple syrup producer and agriculture educator for The Ohio State University extension office.

Many large farms in the area, including Ober’s, have a sugarbush and a building nearby where tanks of sap are transformed into gallons of maple syrup.

Few people see a sugarbush operation because they are far off the beaten path and unavailable to the general public.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t curious about the process of creating the syrup they pour over their pancakes and waffles.

Fair-goers were drawn in by a display of early maple syrup production equipment at The Great Geauga County Fair Nature Resource Center, where Ober traced the advances made in the last eon.

Technology was pretty simple among Native American tribes before they started trading for iron kettles with the first settlers, he said.

No metal buckets, no plastic tubes, no taps were in evidence at the log cabin on the first day of the fair Aug. 31.

Les Ober pointed to a log hollowed out to form a rough-looking trough.

Stomping through mud and snow, the clan would seek out sugar maple trees and gash the bark with stone axes. They gathered the sap in bark containers, trudged back to the fire and filled the trough, then added heated stones. Excess water would steam away until syrup was left, he said.

Some of the syrup would be further heated until it formed a high-calorie hard substance to be used as sweetener in the winter months, Ober said.

He described the final substance as black and unappealing by today’s standards — very different from the golden liquid seen in familiar bottles lined up on the table across the room last Wednesday.

The Native Americans, who had been using the same method for hundreds of years, shared their technique with the settlers, who quickly found ways to improve the process.

More modern equipment was included in Ober’s explanation of how producers in Geauga County use an evaporator to create award-winning maple syrup.

Before his presentation, Ober said visitors usually come into the cabin because of its beautiful construction and to ask questions about it. They stay to watch the video, enjoy the presentation or listen to his concerns about the future of maple syrup production in Northeast Ohio.

How was the maple syrup yield in 2022?

“Not good,” he said. “This climate change is causing problems.”

His opinion lines up with that of Kristen Giesting, liaison for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Northern Forests Climate Hub, who published a paper in 2020 for the USDA Forest Service Climate Change Resource Center titled “Maple Syrup.” It can be found at www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/maple-syrup.

In it, she describes in detail the issues climate change is likely to visit upon the industry by 2100.

“Sap flow is heavily weather-dependent, with temperature fluctuations creating pressure within the tree to move the sap,” she wrote.

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, with one tap hole typically producing up to 15 gallons in a four-to-six-week season, Giesting said, adding from New England to the Great Lakes region, maple syrup production is significant to local economies.

“In 2017, maple syrup production was a $147 million industry in the United States, with 4.27 million gallons produced from approximately 13.3 million taps,” she wrote.

Giesting cited air pollution, drought and insect infestation as possible reasons for a future decline in sap collection, as well as less snow cover causing fine roots to freeze.

If all these come to pass, sugar maple is projected to lose suitable habitat in southern and southwestern portions of its range, she wrote.

“The risk for this species is very geographically dependent. Future opportunities for expanded production may exist in the Great Lakes region and sap production may also increase in northern Maine and parts of Ontario and Quebec,” Giesting said, adding the various issues all occurring at once may cause the maximum sap flow region to move 400km to the north by 2100.

In Geauga County, producers closely watch for the arrival of spring. It can vary by a month or more with buds appearing in late January or February, or not until the middle of March, depending on that season’s temperatures.

“Changing spring conditions and warmer winter temperatures will likely cause the sap collection season to shift and shorten, particularly in the southern parts of the maple’s range, as the freeze-thaw season moves earlier in the year. In one study, 59% of maple producers indicated they have already seen earlier tapping seasons,” Giesting said. “By the end of the century, under a high emissions scenario, the midpoint of the sap collection season is predicted to occur a month earlier.”

Over the next 80 years, Giesting said she expects sap production to decline from central Pennsylvania and southward.

“However, some areas will likely see increases in maple syrup production, including parts of Maine, Canada and the Great Lakes region,” she said.

Adapting a sugarbush to allow for climate change could include better forest management. Competing species should be removed and those maple trees that show the highest sugar content — often those with a wider spreading canopy — should be given priority while the less-sweet maples could be removed, Giesting wrote.

“Prior to undertaking thinning, it may be advisable to test the sugar content of individual trees, as ‘sweetness’ appears to be an individual characteristic that is consistent across years,” she advised.

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