Adirondack Sugar Maple in Decline

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Has anyone in northern NY noticed decline?

http://www.popsci.com/sugar-maples-in-adirondacks-are-mysteriously-tapping-out

[GeneralStark]

Wow the media sure is jumping on this one study. Scientists do know why so I don't understand why all of a sudden there is a big question about it. Tree growth due to acid rain leaching calcium from soils is well documented especially in areas with low calcium bedrock and soils like in many parts of NH and NY.

Even if sulfur emissions have decreased the impacts of acid rain will be long term.

[PACMAN]

My whole 217 ac. are in the adirondak park. All the trees that I have cleared around are doing better than when I started 4 years ago. The crowns are bigger and the young trees are getting bigger. I even have young maple saplings growing where there were only beach trees growing. So I dont know about other areas,but maybe it has something to do with my bush is a north facing slope and is 2000 ft. in ellivation.
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[BreezyHill]

So how does that Al Gore Tea taste.

In NYS the lack of acid rain has made corn growers and high production legumes growers fertilizing with sulfur for top yields. The ph in many lakes and ponds has bounced back rapidly and the Ostriches have even taken their heads out of the sand. And chicken little is recovering from Al's sky falling cries. LOL.

DEC will even allow landowners to let petroleum contaminated soil sit covered for a period of time so that the natural occurring bacteria will return the soil to normal. No more burning contaminated soil that had to be trucked to Canada producing even more air pollution.

Amazing how a few activists can create a panic; yet they will call for more regulation and over site that just causes more pollution from all the vehicals wasted resources, etc that is required to enforce all the regulations.

Just saw a buddies new vacuum kiln that he has to heat wood to 200 F for 30 hours so he can sell fire wood. Glad he is killing all the bugs but MY God that a lot of oil to heat a few cord of fire wood so it can be burned. Now he is one of the only outfits in the area that can haul past the radius limit.

Oh and sulfur aint cheap! Nor is the lime.

[GeneralStark]

What is Al Gore tea? So acid rain is good for corn and legume growers?

[PATheron]

Im left completely bewildered by your post Breezyhill. I honestly know very little about farming but doesn't the lime bring down a high ph? Down here on Bloss mountain which is high elevation a guy was making syrup and a lot of the maples were dying and I can still see signs of dieback real bad and he had the soil tested and said they told him it was the effects of acid rain on top of that mountain that came in with all the fog all the time. I don't know if its true but the whole top of the mountain has bad maple dieback. They said it was the effects of power plants north of his area, maybe even far north. If there are emmisions that are high enough to change the ph in the soil wouldn't the soil have to made to the proper ph before anything would be right again even if the contamination was stopped? Theron

[BreezyHill]

Im left completely bewildered by your post Breezyhill. I honestly know very little about farming but doesn't the lime bring down a high ph?

No, Lime is used to raise the ph. 7 is nutreal and below is acidic and above is alkaline.
Most generally the affects of acid rain are seen in the lower elevations where the water pooled and would drop out the sulfur compound is what I have seen in several publications. Mtn top issues most generally were correlated to viruses attacking the trees in the higher more moist environment.

For the power plant to affect the soil you would need to be in a location that the primary wind current would bring the contamination to the land. This includes correct distance for it to get into the water droplets of the clouds and to get enough into solution to cause an issue. Then you have to factor in time to get enough to change the ph.

Fascinating studies done that test the rings of trees in segments of years to get the contamination factor over time. One study was showing massive amounts of sulfur in the air in the early 1800's, more than in the 1960's & 1970's.

For optimum growth all nutrients need to be in a balanced state and the ph needs to be in a desired range. To low of a ph and as little of 30% of the applied fertilizer is available to the plant. Most legumes like 7.2 - 6.8. Vert wilt and other viruses will kill alfalfa at lower ph quickly. It takes time for lime to affect the soils ph. Apply now for next years best affects. In the spring and disk in for the following spring new planting of alfalfa. Alfalfa is high in calcium so it also removes calcium on every harvest. So a good ph is even more important.

To change a 5.8 ph to 7.0 takes about 3 ounces per square foot for a 5 year crop rotation of alfalfa and 3 years corn. 6.4 to a 7.0 takes about 1 ounce. Our bush is sitting on '300-500' deep lime stone. In some places it is right on the surface below the leaves.

Old time trappers used acorns and leaves to blue their traps. 5# of leaves or acorns in a five gallon pot boil for an hour over an open fire pit and pull the traps out to dry. Perfectly blued for two seasons of trapping. Don't pore the water on the grass or it will kill the grass. To acidic...kills the grass. Ever notice an oak on the field edge. poor crops there unless the farmer knows to triple lime that spot. We have three huge oaks in the back 30 field and even triple liming gives you next to nothing Did a soil test there and it was a 4.7 and the rest of the field was a 6.3.

Al Gore tea is made with Jim S's wild wood weed, mushrooms, datoria stem and leaves. It is best served fresh from the cauldron and a few minutes before and during the presentation.

Acid Rain has several bad things in its makeup; but not everything that is bad is all evil nor is a helpful product all good. Life is a cycle...so get off the coach and take a ride.

Snow fall in NYS is a 10 year cycle when you look back for the last 60 plus years...yes there are seasons that are above and below the trend of the cycle but it all averages out. Look at the ice caps there was a story on TV that showed how one had grown a lot the last two years, look at last winter...not warming here but in Alaska it was warmer than normal.
When I was young I liked to fill my grandparents wood box for the kitchen stove. Some years it was a twice a week chore. One year it was every day or maybe every todays during January and February.

Look at Texas on the 24 hr rainfall maps....drought was nasty in some places and they expect a years worth of rain in three days. This fall in less than 10 hours our pond goes from 3.5 feet below full to 6" from full. Things average out over time.

So will it be a White Christmas this year? Al Gore said that this would be a thing of the past by 2010.

[DrTimPerkins]

Most generally the affects of acid rain are seen in the lower elevations where the water pooled and would drop out the sulfur compound is what I have seen in several publications. Mtn top issues most generally were correlated to viruses attacking the trees in the higher more moist environment.

Not quite correct. It was the higher elevations that were most heavily affected. Red spruce trees turned out to be quite susceptible to reduced cation (especially calcium) in soils. This caused a reduction in foliar membrane stability, which in turn made the trees more susceptible to winter injury. In the high elevation forests throughout the northeast, 50-75% of the mature red spruce trees (which can normally live to be 250-350 yrs old) were killed between the 1960s and early 1990s. Since it is quite windy in these areas, the balsam fir and mountain birch in affected areas were subject to wind-throw. Most of those areas are now coming back slowly, as the understory trees that survived are getting larger. Although diseases may have been involved in some cases as a secondary effect, they were not the primary cause of death. In many cases, it is hard to tell what is primary and what is secondary in trees, but as far as acid rain and trees go, viruses were never a primary cause. You are right that higher moisture was involved, but it was mainly due to cloud water deposition, which is much more acidic and has a far higher load of pollutants than rain does.

Trees at lower elevation, including sugar maple, weren't immune. Their growth was slowed and they were more susceptible to other stresses because they were weakened by acid rain reduced cation levels. Once acid rain was reduced starting after 1990, the inciting stress was greatly lessened, and sugar maple decline abated.