The sugar maple is a well-known member of the natural New
Hampshire forest. The "maple" in the beech/birch/maple
association of our abundant Northern Hardwood forest type,
sugar maples are plentiful in the woods of New England and Southern
Canada. But our familiarity with sugar maples has ironically
caused them to become uncommon around our homes, as years of
planting "something different in the front yard" has discriminated
against them. The size of this sugar maple betrays the fact that
a different landscape aesthetic was at work in the earlier days of
UNH, particularly in light of the fact that virtually no
young sugar maples can be found growing around campus buildings today.
Sugar maples are easy to take for granted due to their great abundance
in New Hampshire forests. Probably the most famous employment for
this species is the spring ritual of
maple sugaring,
an important and romantic New England tradition.
According to one author, maple syrup is the only sweet except
honey which contains the bone-building phosphates that cause calcium
retention. At an average ratio of 32 gallons sap per gallon of syrup,
maple sugar may be a labor-intensive source of sweetener, but few
would argue that it tastes alot better than that Everglade-destroying
white stuff!
Sugar maples are not in danger of extinction, although there is
evidence
that acid rain may be diminishing their collective vigor. It is their
sensitivity to air pollution that often gets them passed up in
industrialized areas for tougher species like the Norway maple.
But the UNH campus could certainly foster a new generation of sugar
maples, given the healthy evidence of these old timers
around James Hall. Today, a campus of Norway maples is rapidly
becoming a reality. Isn't it better to live within natural
systems than to
live in islands with no ecological coherence? What do you think?
more Sugar Maple photos
back to James Hall
about the New England Ecological Garden