About the Maple Sugaring Study (Back to Signs of Spring Home Page) Background Report when the FIRST Maple sap runs this spring to Journey North! If Sugar Maple trees grow where you live, we hope you'll participate in Journey North's maple sugaring study. Although the trees look drab and gray in February, amazing changes are about to occur on the inside. Before leaf-out each spring, Sugar Maple trees produce a sweet sap that can be made into sugar. Learn how to tap a maple--and report the date of your FIRST sap run to Journey North. Note: Even if you can't tap a tree, you can watch for the first sap to run. Simply find a broken branch on a Maple tree--and report to Journey North when the first sap flows. If you have adopted a Sugar Maple for the leaf-out study this spring, you can track the phenology of your adopted maple tree on this chart: Maple Sugaring Spring Phenology Chart For more information about tapping, visit these WWW sites: Massachusettes Maple Producer's Association Ohio Extension Service Copyright 1999 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form