Value of sugaring vs cutting

[DrTimPerkins]

Lots of interesting threads in this story http://www.econewsvt.org/news/sugar-maples-and-acid-deposition-in-the-adirondacks , but the one that really caught my eye was...

Translating ecosystem services into economic terms revealed that profits from maple syrup significantly exceeded the value derived from biomass production, wood products, carbon storage, or fall foliage.

[ennismaple]

"Translating ecosystem services into economic terms revealed that profits from maple syrup significantly exceeded the value derived from biomass production, wood products, carbon storage, or fall foliage. As a result, stands left unmanaged or managed as sugarbushes were of significantly higher median value ($183,605 per hectare) than stands harvested for wood or biomass ($26,136 per hectare). Furthermore, unmanaged stands were not significantly less valuable than stands treated as sugarbushes, indicating that silviculture may not be necessary to maximize maple syrup yield."

My read of the article is this applies to soils where acid rain has stunted the regeneration of maples.

[DrTimPerkins]

That finding applied to sites with both high and low base cation saturation

[mudr]

Interesting article, but I have a question on one statement.

"Furthermore, unmanaged stands were not significantly less valuable than stands treated as sugarbushes, indicating that silviculture may not be necessary to maximize maple syrup yield."

The "value" was calculated as total value of four things (carbon storage, aesthetics, syrup, and wood products). While unmanaged stands did not have a significant decrease in *total* value, they did not report the individual values of each of those four categories. Their conclusion that silviculture practices do not maximize syrup yields cannot be supported with the limited data given. For example, syrup yield may go up with silviculture practices (which is supported in the literature, right? ), but other categories may decrease in value, such as aesthetics. They may cause a wash in total value, but it does not mean that silviculture treatments do not increase syrup yeilds.

Was there a full manuscript from this study published somewhere, Dr. Perkins?

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[DrTimPerkins]

Was there a full manuscript from this study published somewhere, Dr. Perkins?

Yes, but like many journal articles, it is only available if you are a subscriber. The University of Vermont subscribes to that journal. If you go down in the original link I posted, on the right hand side is a section titled, "Journal Publication." You might get to see some or all of the published article via that link. I can't tell what you'll see. Since I am subscribed I can see and download the full article.

Note that I don't necessarily believe completely everything that is in the article, but it does make for an interesting argument.

[johnallin]

Note that I don't necessarily believe completely everything that is in the article, but it does make for an interesting argument.

Oh Oh...No more arguing needed here ;-)

[mudr]

Gotcha. Even if I get just the title and journal from that link, I will use JSTOR or Science Direct at work to find it (and legally, too, I don't want to hurt the large publishers you know)


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