WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST?
Earlier this winter I had to cut down a hazardous sugar maple at someone’s property near Margaretville. The tree was part of an old sugarbush that I knew had been tapped for many decades. When sawing up the tree into “cookies” it revealed a more accurate story of those maple producers that had tapped the tree. John MacNaught made one of these cookies into a backer-board for holding a European mount (he also made) of a buck I got this gun season. You can see from the staining marks 2 sets of maple taps. The outer ones were tapped about 40 or so years ago. The inner ones are shorter taps and probably the old iron ones used in the late 1800s/early 1900s as the rings indicate. Once you tap a tree, you’re a part of it forever. Pretty cool.
Ryan Trapani
Director of Forest Services
Catskill Forest Association