![]() In addition, unpublished research from the University of Vermont suggests that although pure stands of open-grown, large-crowned sugar maple have the capacity to produce more and sweeter sap per tree, they are also more vulnerable to insect and disease outbreaks.Īn eastern wood-pewee ( Contopus virens) sits on her small, lichen-covered cup nest in a young red maple. Since 2012, maple syrup production in Vermont has increased by 49 percent there are now 75 percent more taps deployed in the Green Mountain State than there were a decade ago. The project has three primary goals: to increase public awareness of the essential role sugarbushes play as nesting habitat for migratory songbirds to help sugarmakers manage their lands for bird habitat and forest health as well as sap production and to provide a market incentive that rewards maple producers for managing with birds in mind.Īt the same time, maple monocultures and the clearing of understory plants to more efficiently run and maintain sap lines present real potential for habitat degradation – especially with sugaring on the rise. ![]() Under Hagenbuch’s leadership, Audubon Vermont launched its Bird-Friendly Maple Project in 2014, in partnership with the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. ![]() “This positions our maple industry at the global center of bird conservation for a number of species.”Įileen Fitzgerald, a field intern with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, uses a spherical mirror densiometer to measure the density of the forest canopy at a sugarbush in Belvidere, Vermont. “If we want to increase migratory bird populations, we need to start in the northern forest, because this is where they’re raising young,” says Steve Hagenbuch, a senior conservation biologist and forester with Audubon Vermont, who also manages his own small sugarbush. In Vermont and other northeastern states, a coalition of ecologists and sugarmakers hope to reverse this trend by improving songbird habitat on lands managed for maple production. Migratory species have suffered particularly staggering losses, including forest birds, whose numbers are down by one billion – with a “b” – since 1970. North American bird populations have declined by nearly 30 percent during the last five decades, according to a landmark study published in 2019 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the American Bird Conservancy, Canada’s National Wildlife Research Centre, and five other well-respected institutions. Where shade-grown coffee farms provide important habitat for songbirds in winter, sugarbushes serve as nurseries for those very same birds in summer. Many of the songbirds that winter in the coffee-growing regions of Central and South America spend their summers nesting in the northern forest, including sugarbushes. No stack of pancakes would be complete without a cascade of Grade A and a hot cup of joe – but the connection doesn’t end there. On the New England breakfast table, two things reign supreme: coffee and maple syrup. 55 p.Bethany Smith, a field technician with the bird-friendly maple efficacy study, uses a diameter at breast height (DBH) tape to measure the diameter of a large (31-inch) sugar maple at a sugarbush in Belvidere, Vermont. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. Sugarbush management: a guide to maintaining tree health. ![]() Insects, diseases, improper forest stand management, and unwise sugaring practices are illustrated, and ways to prevent or reduce their effects are described. This report brings together current information on the living agents and nonliving factors that can cause problems in sugarbushes. Recognizing problems and understanding the factors that contribute to their occurrence, development, and significance are necessary to maintain tree health. ![]() Stresses can result from activities by people and from natural phenomena. Some pests can markedly reduce sap quantity others, although conspicuous, are not important. Many pests and other stresses affect maple trees growing in a sugarbush. ![]()
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