![]() Whitman's assessment largely aligns with a 2019 report by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the U.S. "Northern Maine will still be in that belt 50-100 years from now. "It's clear that it is shifting north, and it will continue to shift north," he said. Scientists like Andy Whitman with the environmental group Manomet believe that the area where sugar maple trees can survive and thrive is shrinking. They also could become key to the industry’s survival from climate change. Operations like this one are already vital to Maine’s standing as the third largest syrup producer in the U.S., behind Vermont and New York. Maine Public Arnold Farm Sugarhouse in Somerset County. Like OPEC, the Quebec syrup producers organization has an outsize effect on setting and stabilizing the market prices for maple syrup. Others because producing syrup here means not having to do so under the strict quotas and restrictions set by the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, an organization sometimes compared to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. Some are here because they once worked as loggers in the Maine woods. They’re one of many Canadian producers operating in the region. The workers have constructed a makeshift soccer field out back, using branches for goals.Īrnold Farms is owned by Claude and Francois Rodrigue, a father-son duo. Arnold Farms, located directly across Route 201, has living quarters for teams of migrant workers from Guatemala. They help set the 80,000 taps that funnel sap through five video-monitored pump houses and into the sugarhouse through six miles of underground piping. Sleeping quarters are common for operations here. "There are nights when we don't sleep at all."Īnd when they do, they sleep at the sugarhouse where they’ve constructed a triple-decker bunk bed. "You get a feel for what you need to do to keep up with it and there are nights when we don't sleep much," Jereme Frigon said. Maine Public Jereme Frigon standing amid tapped trees in their sugarbush. The scale of the operation is immense and it's far more mechanized than many operations in southern Maine and New England. The Frigons run it by themselves with some help from their two children. ![]() Gray Jay is also a different kind of operation than what people typically see in southern Maine, where maple syrup production is often a shoulder season crop for local farms and an attraction for families. “But here there are only a few that are smaller than us.” “In southern Maine, we're pretty big,” Frigon said. They’re one of many producers in northern Somerset County, the largest producing county in the entire U.S. The Frigons now produce about 3,200 gallons of syrup that comes from 8,000 taps that crisscross this remote sugarbush. “And that, that was a lot for the number of trees we had. “I think our best season was six gallons,” Donna Frigon said. This is their sixth year in operation, and it's a big step up from their humble beginnings tapping their grandparents’ trees. ![]() The couple leases a sugarbush from the state conservation department in Sandy Bay Township, just a couple miles south of the Canadian border. Maine Public Donna and Jereme Frigon produce about 3,200 gallons of syrup that comes from 8,000 taps that crisscross this remote sugarbush.ĭonna and Jereme Frigon are aware of those dire forecasts even if their business, Gray Jay Mapleworks, is a bit more insulated from climate change. ![]()
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