The great ice storm of Jan. 7-11 has long since melted away. In Clinton County alone, Cornell Cooperative Extension forestry experts are predicting the loss of almost 100 percent of the 1998 maple syrup harvest. Clinton County is in the far northeast corner of New York, bordering Vermont and the province of Quebec. In a memorandum to Cornell extension researchers, Staats notes that Clinton appears to be the county suffering the greatest economic effects from the storm in New York state, which struck the heart of maple syrup country. According to state records, there are 52 maple sap producers on an estimated 3,600 acres in Clinton County, harvesting sap from 180,000 taps, or spouts.
Larger trees can have more than one tap.
Staats estimates that nearly all of these taps will be nonproductive this season because of damage both to the trees and the sap-collection systems. Staats explains that all producers once used buckets on individual maples to harvest the sap each spring. But today, large commercial sap producers use plastic pipeline systems to carry the sap to a central collection point. However, Staats hopes that some Clinton County producers may be able to tap a reduced number of trees next year. Five other New York counties also are facing losses in sap production this year.