Cascading Waters can be found at 135 Olean Street on the eastern edge of Worcester's northwest parklands, the Cascades. The Cascades are 350 acres of park and conservation lands along the borders of Worcester, Paxton, and Holden, Massachusetts. Home to countless species of plants and animals, the Cascades are open to passive recreation year-round.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sap is running

GWLT staff are out at Nick's Woods this afternoon with some Bancroft middle schoolers, setting up a maple sugaring operation. We'll be working on sugaring for the next few weeks; if you have any interest, get in touch with anne@gwlt.org

Clear but chilly out there this morning
At 10 am, it is 27 degrees and steady
50% humidity and steady
30.33 inches of mercury and steady
We'll be working on it, but the stream gauge remains frozen for now.
Fire danger is up to MEDIUM (note the relatively low humidity)

2 comments:

Mike said...

I am curious about the GWLT and maple sugar. Do you make it to sell it? Does it help or hurt the trees? Is it just a cool thing to do?

Tracy Novick said...

Mike,
The brief answer is that it's for the entertainment of staff and volunteers (!), so, yeah, a cool thing to do. There's a minimal amount of syrup made; those that boil get to keep it, and there's some that the Trust keeps for raffles and such.

Sugaring is a bit like blood donation; done right, it doesn't hurt the trees a bit. You can only take so much sap responsibly; it's based on the size of the tree.

Doing does give one a greater appreciation for the labor involved!