planting about 86,000 acres of trees as buffers along streams to prevent pollution from entering the water. Ten million trees could make significant progress towards that goal, according to Sieglitz. “Nothing really beats forest cover for water quality,” explains Ryan Davis, the Pennsylvania forests projects manager for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. Working with 200 partners around the state, from DCNR to environmental nonprofits and agriculture industry groups, the Partnership has provided resources such as trees and stakes for the planting of over three million trees on farms and other personal property. “They help by offering some resources that buoy what everyone else is doing,” Davis says. The Partnership also hopes to boost local economies like maple syrup production as much as possible. In 2017, Pennsylvania had the sixth highest syrup production in the United States at 139,000 gallons. “Maples are always one of our top ten species picked,” Sieglitz says. “When we encourage people to consider things they can eat
Clockwise from top: Stirring maple
“I’m 55. I may see these maples tapped, but more than likely not. I was looking to do something for the future, for my son.”
or source from their forest buffer, maple syrup is definitely on that list.” For maple farmers like Corrie Bacon, who owns Butler Hill Farm in Tioga County, working with the Partnership allowed him to plant maples on previously empty land. Bacon has about 1,500 taps on 39 acres of land, and last year produced 450 gallons of sap. He received 850 trees from the Partnership to help grow his farm even more. While the Partnership has been chipping away with tree plantings, there’s still plenty to do before 2025. From a numbers standpoint, the gap is clear. The Partnership has only four years to plant seven million trees. There have also only been a couple thousand acres of forest riparian buffers planted in recent years, according to Davis. “We’re still in the early stages of this effort, even though it’s been happening for decades,” he says. “The hope is that we’re not going to stay in the beginning stages for too much longer.” Interest in tree planting programs has been rising, which is great for awareness but presents another problem: “Right now, we don’t have enough contractors to do the work,”
cream; seedlings headed for planting; a double-tapped maple tree.
ChesapeakeBayMagazine.com 10
January/February 2022
