'The season is more condensed now'

By Sarah Keating and Abbey Cahill

CONWAY — Toward the end of winter, Howard Boyden grew uneasy about the weather. An untimely warm spell brought T-shirt temperatures to this rural town in Western Massachusetts. 

The fourth-generation maple syrup producer worried that if average winter temperatures remained above freezing at night, it would mean another premature end of the season.

"As soon as the buds come out, you're all done,” he said, referring to how budding trees compromise the sap. “It makes a very undesirable product.”

The optimal time to tap maple trees is when temperatures are just below freezing at night and just above freezing during the day. That used to be in mid-March, but due to climate change, the season now starts weeks earlier.

Boyden recalled how his grandfather began tapping trees around March 15. By the time his father took over the Boyden Brothers Maple business in 1966, the season started closer to the beginning of the month. Now, Boyden says he usually taps trees by Valentine’s Day.

“We are trying to start a bit earlier and chase those early freeze-thaw cycles,” he said. “The season is more condensed now.”

As temperatures in Massachusetts have increased about 3.5 degrees over the past 125 years, droughts have become more common, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Boyden explained that drought stress now often appears in tree rings annually. 

Boyden is also worried about invasive pests, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, which could decimate the region’s maple trees. Global warming has enabled the Asian long-horned beetle to expand throughout New England, where it was previously too cold for the invasive insect to survive. 

The temperature changes also affects the health of the people tending the land. Across the country, farmers have reported rising levels of anxiety, depression, and emotional distress due to erratic weather, drought, and financial uncertainty, according to a 2025 study by Maude Powell and colleagues. One of the farmers interviewed stated that “the unpredictability of the weather makes it impossible to plan, and that uncertainty takes a toll on my mental health.” 

Erin O’Brien, the outreach coordinator of the Natick Organic Farm, said the warming has reduced their production. This year, they’ll be lucky to produce 60 gallons of maple syrup, down from 82 gallons last year. A decade ago, the farm consistently produced 100 to 120 gallons of maple syrup each season. 

“In 20 or 30 years, you probably won't be able to make maple syrup in Massachusetts,” she said. “The season will be too short, and it will not be worthwhile for producers to do it.”

Eighty-nine percent of 106 surveyed maple syrup producers reported that climate change has negatively impacted their operations according to a 2023 study by Selena Ahmed and colleagues. Farmers cited increased variability in snowpack and temperature and decreased sap quality as significant obstacles.  

While many farmers, businesses, and experts are concerned that climate change will result in reduced syrup yields and maple trees moving north, others argue that maples will adapt to the warming.

Eli S. Suzukovich III, who teaches the course Maple Syrup and Climate Change at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and is of Little Shell Band of Chippewa-Cree descent, rejects the notion that maple trees are moving significantly northward. The trees are adapting to the weather and continuing to produce sap, according to sap flow data collected by his students. But tapping season has become more variable, which is bad news for large companies like Kroger and General Mills that rely on trees producing predictable outputs. 

“A maple farm is not a machine,” he said. “It can’t just crank out products at a predictable level … producers have to start changing how they do things in a way to follow the rhythm of the trees.”

Boyden has been taking this flexible approach to maple syrup production by trying to better understand how to protect his trees. For example, about seven years ago, he noticed that maples lining the road by his sugarhouse were dying and that the tree canopy was thinning.

Boyden’s parents built the sugarhouse in 1966 along the Route 116 highway to increase the business’s visibility and encourage customers to stop by. Today, however, this comes with a price. Government agencies like the Conway Highway Department spread large amounts of road salt to prevent icy conditions. According to the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, road salt can kill maple trees by disrupting nutrient uptake and limiting water supply in the soil. 

As a result, Boyden has adapted by tapping further up in the hills, even though the trees here have smaller crowns and the sap isn’t as sweet.

Boyden has also invested in solar-powered vacuum pumps and tubing to eke out extra sap and a reverse osmosis machine to pre-concentrate the sap and shorten boiling time. 

Last year, this technology enabled Boyden to collect about 1,000 gallons of sap, a relatively large yield for a family-run operation and an increase from years prior to 2019 when technology like the tubing was implemented. 

A new study conducted by Emmanuel Owoicho Abah and colleagues found that increased yields per tap accounted for 33% of growth in U.S. maple syrup production between 2007 to 2024, which the authors said “was driven by technologies like vacuum systems.”

Boyden hopes the new technology will keep the business thriving. He plans to pass the business on to his children and grandchildren. But he worries about how much longer it will last and that they will face the brunt of climate change.

“We'll ride the maple wave as long as it's here," Boyden said. 

Sarah Keating is a master's of public health candidate at the Boston University School of Public Health. You can contact her at sakeat@bu.edu. Abbey Cahill is earning her master's of science in journalism degree at BU. You can reach her at acahill@bu.edu.