![]() Tapping the tree collects about 5% of sap without causing any harm. The thaw following a period of freezing causes sap to flow. That’s where Rich Weiss is giving syrup production a try on his family’s property. In the Cascade foothills off Highway 2 on the way to Stevens Pass, one patch of forest is a maze of plastic tubing running among trees. Getting pure maple syrup from a natural sap with 1% to 2% sugar content is more complex than the quaint notion of a bucket hanging from a Vermont maple’s trunk. Department of Agriculture to assess the potential for maple syrup production in Western Washington, and see if it’s possible to build the infrastructure to create a robust marketplace. Wheiler, along with other researchers in the College of the Environment, has spent the past three years working with landowners, scientists and the U.S. Finding new ways to use the bigleaf maple helps increase the economic viability of small-forest holdings, helping owners keep their forests as forests. But as forest regulations have become more restrictive to protect native salmon habitat and water quality, bigleaf maple has flourished, especially in its preferred streamside locations known as riparian zones. ![]() The effort is a way for landowners to convert the bigleaf maple - once considered a nuisance - into a means of extracting value from their property. “We think it’s got multimillion-dollar potential,” said Kent Wheiler, associate professor and director of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. ![]()
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