With maple syrup season set to get into full swing – Prince Edward County’s Maple in the County is just over two weeks away – many producers are concerned about how climate change will affect the industry’s future.
“When I started making syrup back in the mid-70s, like we never thought about tapping until on into March. And now we’re tapping, you know, we usually start mid-February, this year it was close to the first of February that we were starting to go.”
Many maple syrup producers would like to see more carbon-neutral practices though Hubbs feels their carbon footprint has been on the minds of many producers for decades.
Evaporator companies began working on more efficient gas units in mid-1970s but Hubbs says wood burning units have also come a long way.
“Like we have a hurricane arch and it claims 83% of the heat out of the wood as compared to a regular arch which, kind of, collects 33% of the heat out of the wood.”
Some producers are calling for even more efficiency, noting that 85% to 90% of emissions that a maple syrup producer has come from the boiling of sap.
In addition, extreme weather events like windstorms can have devastating consequences on maple trees, which can take more than 40 years to grow back.
“When it’s cool like this you know, it stops the bacteria from growing in the sugar which is always a big help to us. Once you get those days that it’s up to plus 15, plus 17 then the bacteria kinda tends to grow and you have to put a lot more effort into keeping things clean.”
