120 acre sugarbush in Burke VT

[hheigi]

Hi I just found out that the property I own has a large maple grove on it and I have been approached about sugaring. My family and I are open to idea but are concerned on how to do it right. What type of things should we insist on in order to maintain tree health? What is a normal way to reimburse land owner in VT? What are opinions on suction? potential renter wants to use low suction in order to keep lines moving but I worry about what that can do to trees. This property is special to us and we want to do the right thing. :)

[PapaSmiff]

Hheigi,
You certainly came to the right place. But I'll let a more experienced sugarmaker, perhaps from Vermont, answer your questions.

In general, if they follow the North American Maple Producers Manual (Guidelines) your trees will be fine. The "suction" you mentioned, commonly referred to as vacuum, is very common.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I believe both UVM Proctor Maple research and Cornell University both have guidline out that have specific size of trees and amount of taps per tree. On the vacuum side I saw a maple plank with old taps holes in it and a picture of a maple plank with a vacuum tap hole that all had healed. It looked obvious to me that the vacuum tap hole healed up a lot nicer with less damage to the tree the a gravity tap or bucket tap.
Leasing trees umm I'm sure some of them will chip in and let you know what is a fair rate.
You will get a lot of good advice on here, pick the doc's brain.

[tuckermtn]

Hhegi- have you been in touch with Matt Langlais, your county forester? He lives in the Burke area and can be an excellent source of information. He can hook you up with lots of good info out of UVM and other maple resources.

[GeneralStark]

Is your land already enrolled in current use? I assume it is considering the parcel size, but if not you should be as you can get a significant reduction in property tax.

The county forester would definitely be a good source of info.

Here you can find a copy of a standard lease agreement that many use and it should give you a good idea of what you should be considering. Many pay 1$ + per tap on vacuum.

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sugarbushlease.pdf

[DrTimPerkins]

What are opinions on suction? potential renter wants to use low suction in order to keep lines moving :)

Vacuum doesn't cause any more damage than gravity tapping. The main thing is to set a lower diameter limit for tapping, as well as a diameter cut-off for adding a second tap (if you will allow more than 1 tap per tree). Call or email us (UVM PMRC) if you have more questions.

[farmall h]

hheigi, welcome aboard neighbor. I'm pretty familiar with all the folks sugaring in the area. If you like you can private message me. I'm curious as to where your property is. Burke is pretty big!:)