ILDERTON — The weather was a topic of discussion in more ways than one during an Information Meeting Wednesday, Jan. 11, hosted by the South West region of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association at the Ilderton Community Bible Church.
In his presentation about recent research findings in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs agroforestry/orchard specialist Todd Leuty addressed a couple of topics related to weather and the climate.
The early portion of Leuty’s presentation provided updates about insect damage. Pests of interest included the Asian Longhorn Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer, but when it comes to maple production, a significant area of concern in the northeastern US recently has been around the forest tent caterpillar.
“Like any pest infestation, a healthy woodlot is going to be able to withstand the pest better, and is going to be able to recover more quickly from its effects,” Leuty commented. He added that a healthy woodlot also provides a better habitat into which natural predators of the invasive pest can migrate.
The OMAFRA specialist showed side-by-side slides of trees affected, and not affected, by forest tent caterpillar. And one of the most significant effects — due to the increased ability of sunlight to penetrate through the upper canopy — can be changes in the micro-climate at the forest floor.
“You tend to get a flush of growth of a whole lot of different plants and trees,” he said. These may include spruce and white pine, but also potentially unwanted species like buckthorn, vines and raspberries.
Seedlings of maple and beech, stalwarts of most sugar bushes, meanwhile, probably won’t thrive under these conditions.
For maple stands affected by forest tent caterpillar, Leuty advised cutting back on the number of taps per tree to ease the stress caused by the infestation. “In one case in Grey/Bruce, one producer decided just to not tap at all for a year. There had been a couple of years of infestation, and he thought it best just to give the woodlot the opportunity to recover.”
He also urged woodlot owners to view an infestation as an opportunity to broaden the diversity of tree species. After all, an opening of the canopy like that caused by forest tent caterpillar can also aid the survival of seedlings of hickory or oak.
“Usually, it’s temporary — this period of defoliation,” he said.
Leuty also touched on research into the potential change in habitat range of sugar maples due to a gradually-warming climate. He showed a map of the tree’s current range, then a projection for the year 2100. That had sugar maples extending into southeastern Manitoba, and northward in Ontario to the southern tip of James Bay.
Conversely, the sap-running nature of sugar maples is projected to disappear by 2100 in areas of the southeastern US: Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and southern Ohio.
He stressed it was just a projection, however: “We won’t really know for sure until the year 2100.”
Not surprisingly, however, the most urgent weather-related discussion at the meeting was among the producers themselves. And it had nothing to do with what was happening at the front of the room; discussion revolved heavily around what was happening in a freezing-and-thawing outside.
“The sap’s already running in the trees,” commented George Roney of Spring Valley Maple Products in Staffa, who was present in his role as area sales representative for Quebec-based CDL Maple Sugaring Equipment.
Roney noted there have been mild years in the past, but feels the amount of freezing and thawing so far this season has been unprecedented. And, whenever those mild years happen, “it’s not a good syrup crop.”
“Pray for cold weather for the syrup producers,” Roney said, adding he believes winter wheat growers would be among other southern Ontario farmers sharing similar sentiments.