permaculture

[Will Carey <cure@rtinet.com>]

on 4/14/05 9:02 AM, permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org at
permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> From: "michael snow" <msnow@mountainschool.org>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] alternatives to maple syrup
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <006201c54108$70881f00$4a00a8c0@ZOO.MOUNTAINSCHOOL.COM>
> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Do you have birches?  How about birch syrup?  While maples make pretty damn
> good syrup, you can boil birch sap, too.  I think the conversion rate is
> about 100 gallons sap to 1 gallon syrup.  For maples it's 40:1, depending.
> 
> If it's of interest, we had a pretty small year here in Vershire, Vermont.
> We had a short season (though we haven't taken the buckets down, you never
> know...)  We tapped more trees than usual (800 taps) and have made about 100
> gallons.  This is just a so so number.
> 
> Mike Snow

Mike....

This brings up an issue I'm curious about.... Is the article below true?
Should Permies be looking at this as a challenge <==> opportunity?

<http://secret-asian-man.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/6/135110/9066>

Will 

> Climate Change Proof....On Your Pancakes!
> by baldandy 
> Wed Apr 6th, 2005 at 10:51:10 PDT
> Next time you are having breakfast with an ever denying, Crichton-lying
> wingnut (if you have to), bring these facts up for discussion:
> 
> It's getting harder to get pure maple syrup from U.S. farmers, largely 
> because
> of climate changes over the past 50 years:
> 
> In the 1950s, the US produced 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, with
> Canada supplying the remaining 20 percent. Now the countries' market shares
> have flip-flopped, with Quebec alone providing over three-quarters of the
> global supply.
> 
> Why? According to a 2001 report, the gradual increase in temperatures in New
> England are making life inhospitable for maples, who are losing out to oaks
> and hickories:
> 
> "Due to changes in both sap collection technology ... and climate ... the
> maple syrup industry is migrating from New England into Canada," concluded 
> the
> New England Regional Assessment Group in a 2001 report. The study, 
> spearheaded
> by University of New Hampshire researchers, also predicted that if current
> climate projections hold true, New England forests will be dominated by oak
> and hickory trees - not maples - by the end of the century.
> 
> More below... 
> Diaries :: baldandy's diary :: :: Trackback ::
> 
> Climate change is also affecting the length of the sugaring season, 
> shortening
> it significantly in New England but not so in Canada.
> 
> Okay, so someone, somewhere is saying, "big deal, so just convert New 
> England
> from maple syrup production to custom furniture manufacturing."
> 
> Whatever. My point is that the climate change deniers who accuse the vast
> majority of the science community of alarmism need to listen to the real 
> life
> experiences of farmers like Dan Harlow and Jacques Couture, who have 
> suffered
> lost sapping time and revenues.
> 
> These facts arm conservationist progressives with human faces in a "Big
> Oil/Coal" vs "Small Farmers" frame. Exploit this shamelessly in whatever 
> role
> you have in our "vast left-wing conspiracy".
> 
> Climate change is not a paranoid fantasy. Today, it's the maple syrup 
> farmers.
> Who's next?