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We are proud to announce that we will be partnering with the Stockton Maple Project in tapping into the economic and environmental sustainability of our natural resources. We will tap the mature Red Maple trees along the Pinelands Bogs to provide students an opportunity to compare traditional tapping methods with vacuum line collection methods.
September 30, 2025: Mrs. Debra Sommers of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and CP Environmental Science students to provide background information about tree identification, the grant, and how the PRHS red maple population will be included in the tapping and collecting of maple sap for the production of maple syrup during the 2025-2026 school year. Students also had the opportunity to sample syrup made from last year's collection!
April 17, 2025: Mrs. Debra Sommers of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and CP Environmental Science students to wrap up our project for the 2024-25 year. Mrs. Sommers showed students spring maple flowers & seeds, had them compare sap samples using a refractometer, and made pancakes so students could taste the syrup that was boiled from the sap we collected!
Winter 2025: Sap collection for this year's collaboration with the Stockton Maple Project.
January 10, 2025: Students tap 17 Red Maple trees in the Maple groves west of Berm 1 for the vacuum line and 5 trees east of Berm 1 on drip buckets for this year's Stockton Maple Project. Debra Sommers & Lindsey Brown were on site to help students with the tapping.
December 18, 2024: The vacuum lines have been installed and students collected tree data for Red Maple trees in the Maple groves west and east of Berm 1 for this year's Stockton Maple Project. Debra Sommers, Ryan Hegarty, and Judith Vogel were on site to describe the process of mapling.
December 9, 2024: Students tag Red Maple trees in the Maple groves west and east of Berm 1 to prepare for the installation of vacuum lines for participation in this year's Stockton Maple Project.
September 30, 2024: Mrs. Debra Sommers of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and CP Environmental Science students to provide background information about tree identification, the grant, and how the PRHS red maple population will be included in the tapping and collecting of maple sap for the production of maple syrup during the 2024-2025 school year. Students also had the opportunity to sample syrup made from last year's collection!
March 2024: Time to remove all of the taps, roll up the lines, clean, and store equipment until next winter!
February 16, 2024: The pump built by Bruce Plummer of the Stockton Maple Project is up and running and the sap is flowing!
January 12, 2024: Mrs. Debra Sommers and Ryan Hegarty of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and AP Environmental Science students to install taps in 12 red maple trees on two vacuum lines in Bog 1 and 10-12 traditional bucket taps in Bog 1 & 2 on the east and west of Berm 1. Students collected quantitative and qualitative data on the trees and will compare the amount of sap collected from all trees as the project develops.
Alumni from our Inaugural Barrens to Bay Class stopped by for "Tapping Day" at 7:30am during their winter break from college. It's great that they are still invested and interested in what they helped start!
(L to R) Ava Plaia (Stockton University), Brianna Cataffo (University of Delware), Grace Klements (Kutztown University), Amy Dillinger (Univeristy of Rhode Island), and Samatha Dawson (Stockton University)
December 12, 2023: Mrs. Debra Sommers and Ryan Hegarty of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and AP Environmental Science students to run main lines and drop lines into a select number of PRHS red maple trees to prepare for tapping and collecting in January.
December 12, 2023: Mrs. Debra Sommers of the Stockton Maple Project had Honors & Advanced Ecology students and AP Environmental Science students taste products of the sap that we plan to collect from our tapped red maple trees. Students tried some canned maple water from Vermont and Stockton-made maple syrup.
December 1, 2023: Advanced Ecology students researched the Red (Swamp) Maple (Acer rubrum) and the history of maple tapping and developed this presentation:
October 12, 2023: Mrs. Debra Sommers and Ryan Hegarty of the Stockton Maple Project met with Honors & Advanced Ecology students and AP Environmental Science students to provide background information about the grant and how the PRHS red maple population will be included in the tapping and collecting of maple sap for the production of maple syrup.
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