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Warm Up Could Bring Quick Halt To Maple Syrup Season

Tom Carr

Warm days and cool nights have the sap running steadily through a web of plastic tubes into Joe Woods' sugar shack in Rapid City.

But the cold winter started things about three weeks late for Woods and other commercial syrup makers in the area.

So far, Woods has produced about 400 gallons, which is about half of an ideal year.

He thinks he may be able to get one more week of good sap.

Credit Tom Carr

  "After that, just looking at the weather forecast, were starting to see some 68-degree days and stuff like that," Woods says. "If that holds true, it's pretty hard to keep the trees from budding, especially this late in the year."

Buds on the trees signal an end to the season.

Southern Michigan and other states to the south are reporting light crops this year, but Woods - a board member for the Michigan Maple Syrup Association - says the East Coast is having a good year.

Michigan is the fifth largest maple syrup-producing state and the product contributes about 2.5 million dollars to Michigan's economy each year.