Northwest Connecticut sugarhouses may see a short season this year, according to Russell Russ, forester for Great Mountain Forest (GMF).
Sap began to flow late this year as the deep freeze of winter hung on into early March. “It’s been a very strange season so far,” said Russ. “After a cold and snowy December, January and February—all three colder and snowier than average—you might have thought it would be a great sap year. But it stayed cold until early March, then turned very warm in a hurry.”
That kind of heat so early in the season is not good for maple syrup production. Sap flows when nighttime temperatures drop into the 20s and the daytime hours heat up into the 40s.
GMF first collected sap on Sunday, March 8, boiling it in its sugarhouse on Monday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 10, but had to cease production when temperatures skyrocketed.
“I think most local sugar makers have had a slow start this season,” Russ said. “It must have been quite a shock to the trees to go from so cold to so warm in a relatively short period. The trees have definitely come out of their winter dormancy now.”
He said temperatures are predicted to be more seasonable through the rest of March and he hopes for predictable flows and a season that will be at least average.
“It had better happen in the coming two or three weeks,” he said, “because the season won’t last much beyond late March or very early April.”
Temperature predictions indicate the next boiling at GMF may not be until Monday, March 16. An Open Sugarhouse is scheduled for Sunday, March 22, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the GMF Sugar House, 201 Windrow Road in Norfolk.