Spring Bursts onto the Scene

  Today is the first day of spring, but spring sure seemed to arrive weeks ago.  We have already seen bats, phoebes, coltsfoot flowers, carpenter bees, redwing blackbirds, and blackflies.  However, the most important sign of spring to us at Lutherlyn is the opening of the buds on the red maple trees.  Why are they so important you ask?  They mark the end of maple sugaring season.
  The sucrose that rises in the maple trees in the early spring continues its movement as long as the days are above freezing and the nights below freezing.  However, once the buds open on the maple trees, the sugar changes to starch and any resulting syrup does not taste sweet.  So, we watch the tree tops very carefully this time of year to know when to take down our buckets.

  With this years crazy warm weather, we were praying that the buds would stay closed until after our last school field trip.  Well, they did, but only by a few hours.  Our last school group was on March 16 and the very next morning many of the maple tree buds were noticeably open.
  As you may have guessed, this is not normal for us.  We don't usually schedule schools after March 15, so that we have a full week of available days to reschedule field trips.  Most years we will have a few schools that we reschedule because of winter weather.  In the past, the red maples don't usually open until after March 22.
  All of this has reminded me of learning about maple sugaring at Lutheran Memorial Camp in Fulton, OH.  That camp has been making maple syrup for 50 years or more.  The original sugar shack at Lutheran Memorial had one wall plank where the sugar makers listed the beginning and end dates of each maple sugaring season.  Some years were earlier than others, but (as I recall) the general trend was moving earlier into the spring.  I distinctly remember some dates being in April.  I can't imagine seeing our sugaring seasons wait that long.
  Whereas this year's warm temperatures and early spring arrival does not, in itself, prove that climate change is occurring.  Longterm data - like the trend in maple sugaring seasons in Ohio - do point to the simple fact that our climate is changing.  The southern edge of maple sugaring currently extends down into the mountains of Virginia.  We have heard from a relieable Virginia forester that many sugaring operations didn't even tap trees this year because it was too warm.  Will Virginia maple syrup be a victim of our changing climate?  Is it possible for our climate to change enough that maple sugaring in Pennsylvania may be in jeopardy one day?  We hope and pray that this will not be the case, but we are not willing to stop there.  We will continue to work to educate all about our environment and human impacts on it.  We will work as if praying does no good and pray as if working does no good - to quote St. Augustine.