The Sugarbush
The tree that dominates the sugarbush
What is the sugar maple?
The form of energy that breaks chemical bonds during photosynthesis.
What is sunlight?
The average percentage of sugar in maple sap before boiling.
What is 2%?
The most common method of collecting sugar maple sap used by large scale sugarmakers.
What is the sapline?
Three animals that rely on the sugarbush for habitat?
What are:
red squirrel, gray squirrel, white-tailed deer, pileated woodpecker, chipmunk, porcupine, silk moth, song-birds (Scarlet Tanager, Warblers, Ovenbird)
The scientific name for the sugar maple.
What is Acer saccarum?
The two chemical reactants in photosynthesis.
What are CO2 and H2O?
The percentage of sugar in maple sap when if officially becomes syrup.
What is 66%?
The months of the year that sap flows in Vermont.
What are February and March?
In addition to its benefits as a sweetener, native people also valued maple syrup for this.
What is medicinal purposes and/or preservation of meat and other food?
The sub-dominant tree species in the VA sugarbush.
What is American Beech?
The two products of photosynthesis.
What are glucose and oxygen?
The average number of gallons of sap it takes to make one gallon of syrup.
What is 40?
*I'll give it to you if you're off by one or two.
The technology used by modern sugarmakers to increase the concentration of sugar in sap before boiling.
What is a reverse osmosis machine?
An important way to improve the health and productivity of a sugarbush.
What is a selective cut and/or invasive species removal?
A soil nutrient that is much higher in the sugarbush than in the adjacent hemlock forest.
What is calcium?
The chemical formula for the glucose molecule.
What is C6H12O6?
Three grades of syrup from lightest to darkest.
What is Vermont Fancy (the lightest), Grade A Medium, Grade A Dark, Grade B (Robust)?
*three out of four will suffice
The name of the device that a sap bucket hangs from.
What is a tap or spile?
Shortening the period of time in the spring with nighttime temperatures below freezing and daytime temps above freezing.
What are ways that climate change impacts the sugaring industry?
The average age a sugar maple must typically reach before it can be tapped.
What is 30-40 years?
The part of the plant cell where photosynthesis occurs.
An invasive species that can threaten a sugarbush.
What is: multiflora rose, honeysuckle, buckthorn and insect species. Deer can be a problem too.
The Native Abenaki people who lived in this region used this method (requiring no fire) to concentrate the sugars in the sap.
What is freezing and ice removal?
The two ecosystems that surround the VA sugarbush.
What are the field ecosystem and the hemlock forest?