yup I would say that in the old days, the sugar maples that were tapped were mostly along roads and the edge of fields where they had great sunlight and large crowns. Most of my trees are on the side of a ledgy cliff and have poor crowns.

Regarding climate change, the northeast and central US have had colder than normal temps over the past year or two, but 2014 was the warmest year on record if you look at worldwide temps.