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Although it's only early February, maple syrup season, it's underway in our region
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But as exciting as that is for local farmers, it's concerning as well as consistently warmer winters pose an external threat to this industry
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Erie News now's Ethan Kivy has more. It's a busy day at Triple Creek Maple in Cranesville
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For the first time this year, owner Gary Beelick is boiling syrup, and he can't help but be excited
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It's kind of a special day when you finally get a chance to get everything put together and we get a chance to harvest some maple syrup
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But an early February harvest is unusual, weeks, even a month ahead of schedule
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It's as early as we've ever tapped. In years past, February was often our coldest month
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Now temperatures can reach 50 degrees and the sun shines for days in a row
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Even if we had this time of year had had this warm spell, normally we'd be saying
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We're going to get cold next week and we'll be frozen for two or three weeks yet
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There no reason to tap Well that not true anymore That leaves farmers guessing trying to time their taps in an ever window Surrup production depends on cold nights and warm days As each day
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warms up, the sap rises through the tree and flows out of taps like this one. Then as the
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day cools off at night, the sap sinks back down before the cycle repeats. In recent years, warm
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days like this one haven't been a problem. The cold nights, though, have been a problem. The cold nights, been harder to come by. At this point, they are freezing. We're fine. But the fear is that as we go
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into next month, we're not going to have the freezing nights, and we're going to have a very short season
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So as the season gets underway, Beelick has an eye on the future. Ever the scientist, the retired
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teacher, sees temperatures trending warmer and knows it's a potential problem in years to come
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I'm really concerned that for the future of Maple in this area. Now, I'm not a lot of
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not by any means saying we're going to be out of business in the next five or ten years
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But if we're talking 25 or 30 years, it's possible. Ethan Kippey, Erie News Now
