Decreased radial growth in sugar maple trees tapped for maple syrup

The conversion of sap from sugar maple (Acer saccharum) to syrup is a multi-million dollar agroforestry industry in North America. Sugar maple trees take decades to reach a size that can be tapped; therefore, maintaining vigorous trees is crucial to the industry's sustainability. Our objectives were to identify whether syrup production altered radial growth or cambium miner activity. We extracted increment cores and measured ring widths from …