STUDENTS GATHERING sap the old way at Sterling College.
on a comparison of sap yield from 3 / 16 vs. 5 / 16 inch tubing in the Appalachians.
Further south, at the The University of Virginia’ s College at Wise, Dr. Ryan Huish, an ethnobotanist, engages students in a variety of sap and syrup research activities. Using students in his Field Botany Research course as a core, Dr. Huish has organized the“ Southern Appalachian Maple Research and Activities Team” with the appropriate acronym SAMaRA. Their aim is to collaborate with maple syrup makers in the Appalachian community to assess the potential of alternative maple species by comparing sugar content, sap volume, and phytochemestry. Ryan engages his students in activities to raise the awareness of maple traditions, ecology, conservation, and socio-economic potential in the Southern Appalachians. Ryan and his students are also collaborators with ACERnet, a federally funded research team investigating the ecological and socio-economical connections of sugar maples and climate.
Interdisciplinary maple programs
Sap and syrup production is by its nature an interdisciplinary activity. Some schools are taking advantage of that to bring together knowledge and skills from many diverse areas of study. Principia College in Elsah Illinois, with 250 trees
Sterling College
tapped, makes a good amount of maple syrup. John Lovseth, the College’ s forest lands manager, teaches a Sugarbush Management course designed specifically to draw students from across the disciplines. In any given year you can find biology majors measuring trees, dance majors running chainsaws, and history majors bottling syrup.
Nick Baer, Chair of the Natural Science Department at Colby-Sawyer College in central New Hampshire describes their course as“ a wonderful integrated course across our curriculum with graphic design students creating our bottle labels, creative writing students producing poems for the back label, business students con-
18 U. S. Maple Syrup Almanac 2017