After violent windstorms recently swept through southern Ontario and Quebec, uprooting trees and leaving a trail of damage across a vast territory, Renaud’s thoughts went right to his sugar maples in Lanark Highlands, Ont., where storms once considered rogue now seem more frequent.Worsening storms aren’t the only changes Renaud sees. As chair of the climate change working group for the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, he says dramatic weather is having a serious effect on his industry.
“Trees get stressed and then they are more susceptible to pests and pathogens,” said Joshua Rapp, an associate at Harvard University’s school of forestry. Each year between late February and early May, maple syrup producers rely on the delicate freeze-thaw cycles of spring. When nighttime temperatures drop below zero, the maple tree contracts and sap rushes up from the roots into its branches. When temperatures rise during the day, the tree’s wood expands, putting pressure on the branches and forcing the sap back down the trunk and into the taps.
The effects of changing temperatures are felt unequally. Warmer temperatures could benefit northern parts of Ontario and Quebec, which could see up to 40 litres more sap per tap each year. The industry says keeping up with global syrup demand will require tapping 120 million more trees by 2080. That rise in consumption will add to the carbon levels in the atmosphere due to the wood or other fossil fuels burned to boil the sap.
What kinda garbage reporting is this.....click bait
Good thing we don’t export it via a pipeline. The industry would be in receivership already. cdnpoli polqc qcpoli habs
SaveTheSyrup
no