not far from the tree

Not Far From The Tree’s latest endeavour is one that has taken a great deal of research, care, and attention to embark upon. The seed for maple syrup tapping in the city was planted about a year ago when I spotted a neighbour’s tree that had been tapped. This led me to find out about maple syrup projects in other cities like Halifax and Brooklyn. Community maple tapping projects also exist, such as the project through Groundwork Somerville just outside of Boston.

And as we’ve spread word about doing this in Toronto, we’ve learned that we’re not the first to tap maple trees in this city. Trees have been tapped and syrup harvested at the Humber Arboretum. We’re looking forward to continuing this tradition, given the proper precautions.

Indeed, there are plenty of precautions to take! Tapping trees is not a venture to be taken lightly as what we do directly impacts decades-old, living trees that make up our urban forest. Our organizing team for this pilot program – whose expertise comes from fields such as forestry, food security, and community development, along with a team of advisors with commercial and recreational experience in tapping maple trees – has been working hard to ensure that the trees are treated with utmost respect. This is especially important in an urban setting where trees are already under many stresses (e.g., poor soil, drought, development, invasive pests). To be clear about our process, here are a few questions we’ve raised in our research:

What do we hope to achieve with this program?

We’d Tap That allows us an opportunity to animate the urban forest in a very engaging way. When Torontonians hear of harvesting syrup right here in the city, they gain new perspective on the breadth of what our urban trees can offer us. It transforms a tree into something that offers us rich, sweet food from its inner physiology. It provides an opportunity for us to teach about the urban forest, including its many stresses, strengths, and resilience. We hope that each person who gets involved takes something different away from the process, but that each gains renewed respect for the trees around us. By telling the story of tapping for syrup we are also telling the story of the maple trees themselves. When people consider that the trees provide many benefits – including food – we are more likely to provide individual trees with care and respect.

Can all maple trees in Toronto be safely tapped?

No. Many urban trees are under various stresses due to city conditions (e.g., soil compaction from heavy traffic, dehydration from road salt, poor previous pruning, etc.). We are not interested in tapping trees that are already facing these stresses as it will be harder for the tree to heal the tapping wound and recover from the loss of sap.

Is it safe to tap healthy trees?

Provided the tree is healthy and growing visorously to begin with, tapping a maple tree results in minimal disturbance to the tree. When a tree is tapped to extract a portion of sap, it is done by creating a drill hole into the tree’s phloem. The spile is inserted into this hole for the sap to be extracted and is removed before spring arrives – the most vigorous healing time for a tree. The small wound of the drill hole is sealed off by vigorous responsive wound wood. Tapping the tree in late winter, as has been done in the tradition of maple syrup harvesting, is good timing as it gives the tree time to heal its wounds at the beginning of the spring season so that it remains healthy in its production of buds and leaves.

The key point to make note of, however, is that healthy trees face only minimal disturbance when tapped to make maple syrup, and so care must be taken to ensure that only trees in good health and that are growing vigorously are tapped.

In regards to extracting the sap, here is an excerpt from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs’ website on the maple syrup industry:

“In a manner analogous to a blood sample taken from a healthy person, the removal of sap from a tree will not harm it, provided that proper tapping guidelines are followed. This includes avoiding the tapping of small trees and controlling the number of taps per tree. Less taps should be used if the trees are under stress (i.e. insect defilation, severe ice storm damage, etc.).”

How will we ensure proper tapping techniques are used?

A small group of specially-trained Not Far From The Tree volunteers will be the ones doing the tapping. Their training will include a lesson in tree physiology and a tree tapping demonstration before they work in small teams to tap the 8-10 trees that we will pilot this year. Volunteers have already come forward for these positions and we are in the process of developing the training program. In addition, we do not intend to tap the same tree two years in a row.

What makes a maple tree a good candidate to be tapped?

There are several factors we’re looking for before we choose that a tree will be tapped. First, we are looking for trees that are on private property where the homeowner has given his or her permission for the tree to be tapped. (Some trees are deceptive as they appear to be on private property but are technically on City land.) For the pilot program we are limiting tree candidated to Norway maple trees, not sugar maples as are usually used in maple syrup harvesting (see below). Then we must assess the tree to make sure it is in good health and growing vigorously, that the tree itself is in good condition and able to withstand any urban stresses. Next, we look to see if the tree is large enough (at least a foot in diameter) for one or two holes to be tapped. We must also consider the logistics of getting the sap to our sugaring-off, so location is an important consideration. If the tree passes all of these tests, then we will consider it to be one of the 8-10 trees that we use in our pilot program this year. Of those that pass, only the healthiest trees will be chosen.

What varieties of maple tree will we be tapping?

Not Far From The Tree is only looking for Norway maples. In the maple syrup industry, sugar maples are the ideal tree to tap. They have the highest sugar content of maples and produce a very delicious syrup when their sap is boiled down. In the city, however, the native sugar maples are more susceptible to urban stresses. Norway maples, on the other hand, are an adundant species in Toronto that fare very well under urban stresses and that also produce a sugary sap that can be boiled down to make syrup. While sugar maple is boiled down to a 40-1 ratio to produce syrup, Norway maples have a lower sugar content and therefore require being boiled down to a 60-1 ratio, yet the syrup they produce is equally delicious. Given this, Not Far From The Tree is looking to tap 5-10 Norway maples and no sugar maples in our pilot program.

Is it ok to tap trees on City property, specifically with sugar maples on Parks property?

(Note: Not Far From The Tree is only looking to tap trees on City property, only on private property with homeowners’ permission. We are inquiring with the City for their thoughts on how best to use this program as an opportunity to educate about the urban forest.) When we asked the City of Toronto what their official stance was on tapping trees on City property, the Parks, Forestry, and Recreation department issued this response:

“The City of Toronto does not permit the tapping of sugar maple trees in our Parks. City of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 608, Parks, prohibits any activity that would injure a tree, located in a City park.