S1 E8: Maple Syrup Day with Mount Rainier Institute and the UW Bigleaf Maple Syrup Program

Mount Rainier Institute provides regional schools with in-depth programs focusing on forest science and STEM education, using the Charles Lathrop Pack Experimental Forest - located at the foot of Mt. Rainier, as an outdoor classroom.

Pack Forest, part of the UW School of Environment and Forest Sciences, sits on 4,300 acres of working forestland. The forest provides the resources to discover, teach and demonstrate the concepts of sustainable forestry.

On this episode, FieldSound visits the Mount Rainier institute for “Maple Syrup Day” to learn about experimental production of Big Leaf Maple Syrup alongside kids from a local elementary school.

Read about how UW is helping to build a maple syrup industry in Western Washington.

The Mount Rainier Institute is supported by the Mount Rainier Institute Fund and has received grant support from The Russell Family Foundation and Outdoor Schools Washington.

https://environment.uw.edu/podcast

Transcript

00;00;01;01 - 00;00;29;24
Sarah Smith
Driving Highway seven on a Tuesday morning in January, you could easily miss the unassuming hand-carved sign welcoming visitors to Pack Forest. A skinny road leads to a longstanding research site under the care of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. In 1926, Lumberman and conservationist Charles Lathrop Pack gifted UW’s

00;00;30;02 - 00;00;35;24
Sarah Smith
College of Forest Resources funds to purchase 334 acres of forest land for research.

00;00;35;27 - 00;00;36;19
Background
Acknowledge that this.

00;00;36;26 - 00;00;41;17
Sarah Smith
Today Pack Forest encompasses 4300 acres of working forest.

00;00;41;20 - 00;00;44;16
Background
All up to this day, yes.

00;00;45;29 - 00;01;11;23
Sarah Smith
Pack Forest is part forest classroom, part research lab. It has a vision and mission that focuses on sustainability. And recently, Pack Forest expanded to incorporate outreach efforts, conference facilities and the establishment of the Mount Rainier Institute. Also known as MRI in 2014 cabins and trees. Today, MRI is hosting elementary students from a nearby Washington state public school.

00;01;11;26 - 00;01;13;21
Background
Are you evergreen trees?

00;01;13;23 - 00;01;24;06
John Hayes
This day program focuses on big leaf maple syrup. And just like it sounds. It's all about how big leaf maple sirup is produced here in Washington.

00;01;24;10 - 00;01;28;17
Sarah Smith
This is John Hayes, director of the Mt. Rainier Institute at Park Forest.

00;01;29;00 - 00;01;32;12
John Hayes
How it's an indigenous technology that's been adapted over the years.

00;01;32;13 - 00;01;37;09
Sarah Smith
Places like Mt. Rainier Institute are teaching kids about science. Hands out.

00;01;37;26 - 00;02;06;16
John Hayes
We are often illustrating real life research that's happening at the university. And indeed, this big leaf maple sirup project is a research project. The University of Washington is involved with. And so it's an opportunity for us to demonstrate real life on the ground science as it's happening to students, as well as teach a little bit about this topic and the history behind Maple Sirup being and all those sorts of really neat things.

00;02;06;23 - 00;02;07;11
Sarah Smith
Very cool.

00;02;07;19 - 00;02;09;10
Sarah Smith
And here comes the bus.

00;02;09;10 - 00;02;10;16
John Hayes
Bus. Busses.

00;02;10;20 - 00;02;46;08
Sarah Smith
Busses. Just on the other side of the cabins. Adjacent to the forest is another unassuming, small brown building called the Sugar Shack. From there, the sugar shack is essentially where the magic happens. In 2019, the USDA granted funds to researchers to see if big leaf maple trees that grow natively in the Pacific Northwest could produce maple sirup as a commercially viable product.

00;02;46;11 - 00;02;48;04
Background
And units of sirup that we've made here.

00;02;48;11 - 00;02;49;13
Background
I love seeing.

00;02;50;19 - 00;02;59;23
Sarah Smith
The kids get to see a bit of the sap before it's processed. It's kind of a clear looking liquid. There are some ice chunks in a bucket.

00;03;00;22 - 00;03;01;12
Background
They used to actually.

00;03;01;16 - 00;03;11;05
Sarah Smith
Mike Spicer is the maple sugaring specialist here at Park Forest. He's from the East Coast. He grew up with maple sirup running through his veins.

00;03;11;07 - 00;03;39;28
Mike Spicer
I went on a field trip like it's very similar to this in fifth grade to a local sugaring shack and thought it was interesting and tapped a couple of trees around the house of my mom. And after a while that was 2011 and I've been making maple sirup at some hobby scale, our commercial scale since you know it, sirup is how much it just uses just sugar, you know, liquid and it gets 25.

00;03;40;10 - 00;03;42;25
Mike Spicer
It's 66.7.

00;03;43;00 - 00;04;00;18
Mike Spicer
So it's coming from sugar.

00;04;01;13 - 00;04;07;15
Mike Spicer
You then run it through reverse osmosis machine and get anywheres in between.

00;04;08;02 - 00;04;37;26
Sarah Smith
For the process after harvest is to essentially remove water and impurities from the sirup. The liquid is then boiled to increase the sugar content and to caramelize and create that kind of rich, nutty maple sirup flavor that we all know and love. And if you think of the crystallized sugar that you put in your coffee and baked goods as 100% sugar, that gives you a reference point as to how sweet the sirup is.

00;04;38;22 - 00;04;59;02
Mike Spicer
It's very much in the research phase. And part of, you know, probably the biggest aspect of this project is is this commercially viable for for other private landowners, too, to go out there and take off? I believe it's proving itself to be, but there's lots of challenges that need to be overcome.

00;04;59;26 - 00;05;11;04
Sarah Smith
So what are the benefits of a maple sirup industry in the Pacific Northwest? It gives private landowners, for a start, an economic incentive to keep their forests as forests.

00;05;11;17 - 00;05;27;22
Mike Spicer
If they can't harvest timber and they can't do anything with their some of their land and preparing themselves, they have no source of revenue off that and keep it as timber. And why wouldn't they just sell it to develop? So this is an opportunity to keep forests, forests.

00;05;27;28 - 00;05;35;02
Sarah Smith
And so on. Who doesn't love maple sirup? It's delicious.

00;05;37;02 - 00;05;43;23
Background
Acer acer macro macro phylum phylum

00;05;43;26 - 00;05;44;27
Background
Acer Macrophylum

00;05;44;29 - 00;05;57;21
Sarah Smith
The research area filled with maple trees is just up the hill. The kids stop off the Maine trail to pick up some giant leaves. These are maple Leaves. Big Leaf Maple Leaves to be exact.

00;05;57;23 - 00;06;03;28
Background
Macro means really big. And then phylum refers to leaves. So what is that name mean?

00;06;04;00 - 00;06;13;03
Sarah Smith
Kids ask the absolute best questions, and that's a quality that can serve them as they grow older and think about what they want for their future tree.

00;06;13;20 - 00;06;17;19
Background
They have the biggest leaves like it is like it's bigger than anything.

00;06;17;21 - 00;06;55;24
Sarah Smith
Maybe they want to keep asking questions. Maybe they'll become a scientists macro or a maple sirup producer. The possibilities are endless. A special thanks to John Haze and the Mt. Rainier Institute Maple Sugaring Specialist Mike Spicer and the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences at the University of Washington's College of the Environment. Thanks for tuning in. See you next time.