WABI visits UMaine’s sugar house as maple season gets underway
WABI (Channel 5) reported on the beginning of Maine’s maple season while visiting the University of Maine’s Thomas J. Corcoran Sugar House. Keith Kanoti, a forest manager at UMaine, said students, staff and faculty tap about 350 trees to make syrup every spring. The recent weather has been perfect for harvesting sap, WABI reported. “If we continue to get those cold nights, warm days without too much prolonged warmth, we could have a pretty decent season. You just always have to sort of wait and see,” Kanoti said. In addition to bottling syrup, UMaine’s sugar house also serves as an educational tool for students to learn about the industry, according to the report. “Maple has always been important to Maine, and the maple industry is actually growing,” Kanoti said. “The product is being marketed farther afield then it ever used to be, so the importance of maple regionally is increasing.”