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I once declared war on porkys on a couple hundred acres of forested land that we own in southern Cattaraugus County, in western New York.  It seemed that they could not get enough of the painted steel covering on the windows of the new cabin we built.  They disregarded the lumber and ate the steel and paint.  They also ate the aluminum handle of a pot that was left outside on the porch.

After eliminating 18 porkys in the vicinity of the cabin, the problem abated.  Subsequent to my assault, we started seeing fisher sign in our woods.  The Pa. game Commission (I believe) had stocked fisher in the nearby Allegany National Forest. Porky numbers have remained low since.

I enjoy your articles and always learn something from them.  I’d like to share an insight about their behavior that I haven’t seen in any literature.  One winter I located an active den tree in a far corner of my property, a place where mostly beech, ash, hard maple grew with hemlock and red oak sprinkled in.  I could see clearly in the deep snow that this porcupine wasn’t travelling far to find food.  There were several paths to nearby beech and maple trees ten to twenty feet from the base of the den.  The animal chewed patches of bark at the base of several trees, some large patches, some small.  I was puzzled by this.  I knew they would chew beech, but a rough barked maple?  And it didn’t climb; all the patches were at ground level.  Then it dawned on me.  This animal conserved energy by not travelling far and not climbing to chew bark,and it was creating future den trees in the process!  Debarking would certainly cause rot at the base of those trees creating potential den trees decades hence.  This type of behavior would have a selective advantage to the individual as well as the species itself.
An additional note, one spring day in the ‘70s I counted eleven porcupines, seven adults and four youngsters on my property of 165 acres.  Twenty eight thousand pine trees were planted in the late 50s and porcupines were chewing many of them.  Today those trees are 65 ft tall and seldom do I see a porcupine in one of them.  I’ve shot only one in forty years.  There is an active den and that animal will chew a twenty foot beech until there’s no bark left.  I think the pines are too tall to scale in the winter.  Why expend all that energy when there are short beech trees nearby.  And, yes, I still find bases of nearby trees eaten.
Thank you for reading.  I was a biology major (BA,MS) and still get a thrill (chills, really) thinking about what organisms have to endure to survive.

Hi J,

The equation is constantly changing, as the sugar content of sap fluctuates throughout the season. To figure it out, you have to divide the sugar content of your sap by 86. Thus, if you’re boiling 1 percent sap, you’ll need 86 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. 2 percent sap you’ll need 43 gallons.

What is the ratio of gathered sap to maple syrup?

How many gallons of sap does it take to make one gallon of Syrup.

(This is a real question from a east coast fisherman type who knows nothing about sugaring.)

Hi Jason,

“Buddy” is an off-flavor that typically develops late in the season, when buds are swelling and the tree’s metabolism is changing. It might be associated with increased amounts of amino acids in sap. There’s another naturally occurring off-flavor called “Metabolism,” which is sort of like buddy but happens earlier in the season, usually during a warm spell. People have described buddy as tasting like chocolate or butterscotch; metabolism as tasting like popcorn or peanut butter. As you can imagine, it’s very hard to free associate like this and have it make sense to anyone but the taster. Some years there are reports of widespread metabolism, other years no reports at all. Because these are naturally occurring off flavors, there’s nothing a producer can do about them.

As for the specific taste of red maple sap, it would seem, based on the size of the buds compared to hard maple buds that the syrup would go “buddy” quicker. We just started tapping red maples in our sugarbush in the past few years, and because all the sap gets blended with hard maple sap, i can’t say one way or the other if this is true. As you know, there are so many variables that effect syrup flavor, it’s really hard to isolate one variable and make a definitive declaration.

Finally, on most years trees will get sweeter (then less sweet) as the season progresses. We usually start around 1.5% in our bush in February, peak at about 2.5% in mid-March, then fall back down to around 1% in mid-April. Early tapping reports in southern Vermont had sugar content around 1% in late January. This sap will almost certainly get sweeter as the trees wake up and shrug off winter dormancy.

Proctor Maple Research Center http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/ and the Cornell Research and Extension program http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/ are both good sources of maple info where you can learn more. Let us know how you make out this year, and whether this year’s syrup has that same nutty/vanilla flavor.

Going from this article, I decided to purchase sugar supplies and tap my read maples this year. The syrup made from these seems to be somewhat darker (article mentioned) but also the syrup has a nutty/vanilla flavor. I also noticed that I took it past the recommended sugar content by bringing it off at 32. I should have brought it off at 30 or just after.
Is there more information on the taste of the final product, syrup made from a Red Maple? All my sap is from Red Maples. Perhaps, weird winter this year, I started to tap early. Is there any information on starch levels in the sap if tapped to early? Perhaps explain the slight off taste?
With a temp of 20’s at night, days 40ish, and I gathered the sap on a two day drip, I cooked it down right away, I am sure there is no spoilage.. Can you explain “buddy”?

I liked reading the article to hear what is happening in different parts of the northeast.

My daughter thinks trees need no water in Winter - none between Oct to Mar. Water is costly & we are rapidly draining our 1,000 year old underground lake source.
Roots do need water, as I see in literature.
We have 2 Chase, 1 Catalpa, & 8 Pine trees for shade. A bunch of crepe mrytle bushes for shade.
My thoughts 1.  Winter- water every 2 to 3 weeks-all are 1 to 5 years old.  2. I think deep watering once a week except when we have long term 100º, 110º +++days. Do you have any papers on winter watering needs? She does not like my opinion! I am a retire 87 year old BSEE engineer from Illinois. This high desert-2,300 above SL is 20-30 nights and 6o to 70 day time in this whole winter. Thanks.
ah

Hello fellow birders:

This is Sara, the birding buddy mentioned in the above blog.  Please rest assure that I DID enter our sightings into ebird.  I hope you all enjoyed this story, it was a wonderful experience - thanks Meghan!

Sara Eisenhauer

A wonderfull tale, might I make a request? Please enter your bird counts in eBird.
http://www.ebird.org
Thanks! Noel Dodge

Agreed.  Whitingham is 1,038 folks.  The Hurricane hit hard and the economy is difficult, but it allows an opportunity to remove unnecessary aspects of life and focus on and appreciate the core of good, sustainable, local living. 

It brings to mind two Wendell Berry quotes and my favorite bumper sticker….

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

“Be joyful because it is humanly possible.”

Bumper sticker on my truck (Art Buckwold quote)  - The Best Things in Life, Aren’t Things.

Hi there, Guy.

That is great you are considering building a heron platform. You can check out this link for a PDF that has heron plans:
http://www.redsquirrels.info/Documents/Building_Nest_Boxes.pdf

Also, I highly recommend the book, Woodworking for Wildlife, put out by the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources. I have built nest boxes myself using this book—it’s a must have for anyone considering building homes for wildlife!
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/books/index.html

Thanks,
Meghan

My husband just called me from work (in Putney, VT) awhile ago and told me that a big huge headed tan cat just walked in front of him (outside) about 6 feet away from him. This was about midnight. I asked him if it was a house cat and he said, “No. It was about 4 to 5 times bigger than any house cat he had ever seen.” I asked him if it was over 50 pounds and he said, “Well over that.” I asked him if it had stripes or a long tail or pointy ears? He said, “I don’t know I was more worried about it attacking me than whether or not it had pointy ears and a long tail, But it did not have stripes.” I said do you think it was a mountain lion? He said, “I don’t know. But what it wasn’t was a tame domestic cat. It looked wild! But it just walked past me and down by the woods.” He then told me that they just had a new early calf born in the barn that night and that they have chickens all around up there. I told him to be careful and to watch his back cause that is how they attack. He said he was staying inside now for the rest of the night and would be very careful if he goes outside.  So then I took a photo of a mountain lion online and sent it to him on his cell phone. He said that is exactly what it looked like. He said that he is sooo glad the moon is out and so bright tonight.  So I guess no matter what the fish and game dept says, there are mountain lions in VT. I also saw one when I was a child in Marlboro, VT but my Dad said I was seeing things. The one I saw was all black. And it was at least 2 ft tall, I could see his back well over the uncut hay in the field. It walked along the edge of the woods and then into the woods across the road from my house. I know what house cats look like and this was huge and muscular. Like a panther. This was 40 years ago and I still have never forgotten even when I have been out in the woods hunting I always look for tracks. And have seen many small bobcat tracks but no big cat tracks yet. Weird. It is like they are a ghost. Tonight there was no tracks because there is no snow and the ground is frozen. So no evidence this time either. I would love to see photo’s of any that anyone has taken of them in VT. Send them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Thanks…

Dan: Yes, while researching this article I heard those stories too. It’s interesting how long this has been a low-level problem in NH. NH law considers feral swine someone’s escaped property, so yes, you have to ask before killing them. But I’ve heard that the park always says yes, even while saying that they are not their boars.

Michael: I think that just about everyone who knows the damage these creatures have done in the South is right with you on this.

Karen: I saved the tough questions for last. The wild boars in North America are either imported Eurasian wild boars, or domesticated pigs turned feral. Pigs are believed to have been domesticated from wild boars 15,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. They are not native to North America either.

In Eurasia, their native continent, the main predator of the wild boar is the tiger. Wolves are another predator, as are jackals.

Wild boars were never native to North America. However, the U.S. does have native animal that looks similar: the javelina or collared peccary. These animals are native to the desert southwestern U.S., Mexico and points south. I’ve read that peccaries are not pigs, although they look an awful lot like pigs to me.

Growing up in Eastern Canada I was much like Mark.  We had a very old house (somewhere in the range of 300 years old) and it wasn’t insulated except by old newspapers.  We went through about 9 cords of wood a winter, never heating the bedrooms only the kitchen and living room.  Oh how I long for those cold hardwood floors.  Anyway,s back on topic.  We never had a maul, just an axe.  We kept the axe sharp and had a large oak block underneath to protect it from the ground. 

My friends had mauls and I always tried to convince my dad to buy one, thinking it would be easier, but he never bought one…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  It wasn’t until last week that I actually tried a maul, and let me tell you, after about two hours of frustration it is going back to the store and my axe is back.

Is there a chance to obtain the plans for your great blue heron platforms? I have a two acre pond on my property and was considering trying to start and then expand a heron rookery on our land. Thank you for any help.

Sincerely,
Guy

Feral pigs are a BIG problem down south.  State governments must eliminate these creatures from our New England forests.  In addition, states should strongly consider passing laws against the use of these animals on game preserves.  If we have laws to protect endangered species then we ought to have laws that protect them against potential lethal threats.

ENJOYED YOUR ARTICLE, TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO USE MY 60 ACRES OF WOODS TO MY ADVANTAGE. LIKE YOU I HAVE NO OAK BUT SUGAR MAPLE, ELM, BEECH, AND ASSORTMENT OF OTHER HARDWOODS. I THINK I’LL GIVE THIS A TRY, I BELIEVE THERE IS A MARKET FOR IT HERE IN THE RUTLAND AREA.

After the fillet is cut off place it skin down on the cutting board and cut across 1/4 inch apart down to but not through the skin.  The fine bones seem to disappear when fried.  Thats the way my folks always did it.

Madeline Bodin says “because they are not native to this continent, they have no natural predators here”; did they never have predators in the wild, where they originated?  And did the predators, or their cousins, never live here?  What is a “natural” predator, and did we naturally remove them?