I have never actually tapped maples for sugar myself and leave this adventure to the shacks that make a living doing so. Spring ritual for us is to go to a shack and gorge on foods rich with the succulent sweetness of maple syrup. As with all things, what you can get in the stores is good but what you can experience fresh is worlds better. If you take a mind to tap maples for sap to boil down for syrup remember it takes next to 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup. All the more reason for me to leave that adventure to the local professionals.
Sugar maples are common in eastern deciduous forests especially at lower elevations.
Trees reach up to 98 feet in height and are common in lawns due to their fast growing nature. For those of you lucky enough to have spring actually springing I wanted to send a reminder that maple trees are edible. Young leaves and buds make an interesting addition to salads and the bark from saplings can be peeled and dried for tea. Mature beans are great dried and ground to be used in muffins and quick bread recipes or if young enough peel them and serve as you would green English peas. Maples tend to cycle in the years they produce a plentiful amount of seed.