Sticky situation: squirrels are sabotaging US maple syrup operations
- Rise in population of the critters means more are chomping on tubes that collect the sweet liquid from trees in Vermont, Maine and New England
North American maple syrup producers have more than the weather to worry about. Frenetic squirrels are chomping on equipment, crimping the flow of sap at some operations in the United States.
That means producers must go out into sometimes deep snow to find and replace the damaged lines that transport the sap from the maple trees or other chewed or missing equipment, which producers say can be time-consuming and expensive.
“Occasionally they declare war and it seems like they have this year,” said Ruth Goodrich of Goodrich’s Maple Farm in Danville, Vermont, the largest maple producing state.
The business, which also sells maple equipment, thins out other trees so the maples do not have competition and to remove the food source for squirrels. But on a parcel of state land it rents in Groton where other trees are mixed in, the squirrels did a number on the equipment.
The boom in the squirrel population is mostly tied to an increase in food source, such as acorns and other mast from trees, said Mark Isselhardt, maple specialist with the University of Vermont Extension. But the squirrels are not causing problems for all producers, he said.