County owned roadside trees???

[tylerj]

I wondered what the thoughts are on tapping roadside trees out in the country? Do you seek permission from the county first? Do you talk to the nearby farmer first? I've never seen them tapped in the last 7 or 8 years that I've been driving past them. There are several stands of large trees nearby that would make sap collection very easy on my way home from work each day.

[valleyman]

Morning,
Dont know about your neck of the woods but I recently checked on the very same idea in CT. I drive by a bunch of nice sugar maples and I was going to just tap them. But for good measure I contacted the state and it turns out that they issue permits for tapping. .50 a tap with a 50.00 minimum fee. He also said that I could not tap the trees that I had in mind. He told me the land where I could tap and I had to climb up a huge hill only to zero number of maples form the access point I tried. Maybe next season I'll look into it again.
Good Luck

[gator330]

Here in New York you pay tax to the center of the road. If you own both sides you pay tax on the hole road. The town, county or state has a right of way making it a public highway or road... some cases they the town or state owns the road. The person that owns the land long side the road owns the trees. One should get permission from the land owner. I think one might get mad if some one just starts tapping there tree's.

[tylerj]

Thanks for the replies. I will make sure I have the okay from all parties involved before tapping anything.

[gator330]

You are right about easy to tap and collect from. They also tend to have big tops and be high in sugar. Look into it you might just get to tap them for a pint, weather it be syrup or whiskey! Helps to have one of each in hand when you ask.

[tylerj]

Thought I'd call my local twp office and the guy kind of laughed when I asked. He said most people just go ahead and do it without asking so it was a refreshing change that I at least called first. He said if the tree is on the road allowance it is owned by the municipality. He's going to check with his road Superintendant and let me know but it doesn't sound like its an issue on their side at least.

[KenWP]

I see lots of trees along side the road around here also. There was one long stretch of trees looked like nobody was going to tap them but in the last couple weeks of the season all of a sudden there were taps in them. There are lots of trees around if a person can figure out who owns them and what language to speak.

[firetech]

We will run about 500 taps on the roadside and yard trees this coming spring. In my area we pay taxes to the center of the road, if a you want a tree trimed up its your problem but if the county demise it a hazard its theres to cut down but you can have the wood. So I ask every property owner for permission. I have two routes one is to the south and east about a ten mile long and the north and west is about seven miles long if there,s a tappable tree I ask because it takes no more gas as we are already driving by. Its always good business to ask and have good repore in the neighborhood. Only three people have evey said no and more ask why you haven't ask before. good luck road sows are great.

[KenWP]

good luck road sows are great.
Okay what are road sows. New word for me even. Neighbours figured I lost my mind when I tapped the big trees in the yard. They are silvers and nobody and I mean nobody seems to tap them around here.

[firetech]

We refer to the road trees as sows because they generally give 30% more sap than woodlot trees, due to the larger crown and many of mine are on the edge of a farm feilds that gets them some fertilzer run off too. We have one stretch of road where we have buckets on both sides of the road for 1/4 mile about 100 taps of easy pick-n (the money run) that road alone has over 400 taps in 3 miles of paved road and less than 20 feet from the truck to carry. We use recycled 5 gal plastic buckets , 2 spiles and tubing thru the lid and just change out the buckets empty for full ones as we go down the road

[tylerj]

Firetech.. thats exactly how I was going to do it. I've been collecting 3-1/2 and 4 gallon pails with lids from 2 grocery store bakeries that just throw them out. Free of charge and they are perfect for the job. I have about 60 so far after about 3 weeks of collecting once a week. I am going to run 2 lines to a pail and just swap out the pails with clean ones as I gather it.

I spoke to a local guy who does syrup with his dad in their bush and he too said those roadside trees give a lot of sap. I wonder too if its because they get more sun exposure vs.. being shaded in the bush?? Anyways I've spotted at least 50 trees within a 5 km stretch and plan on tapping 2 per tree. I think that will keep me busy enough :) Once permission is granted of course.

[firetech]

2 spiles to a T then to the bucket only one line to deal with at the bucket. 1 draw back is the wind on real windy days we can't pick up or we will be chasing bucket 1/2 way across the county and tying them down is a real pain to pick the next time. We have only had 1 vandelism problem in 3 years 5 buckets stolen and 12 tapping rigs broken up. They should never give the kids time off from school. It happend during Easter holiday.

[KenWP]

Can you not weigh the buckets down with something heavy. I used chunks of firewood. I have one tree in the middle of the yard that had a metal bucket one it that had a peice of firewwod with two nails in it the whole season. if I didn't use a weight I chased it all over the yard everyday.

[firetech]

250 5 gal buckets?????? We are trying to figure out tubing for the road trees and cutdown on bucket #s