Sugar Maple: Old and Open
This sugar maple which appears to be reaching for the sky has grown along the road on the edge of our property for the entire 49 years we have lived on a hill in Caroline, NY. I have started to wonder how old it might be. My neighbor said my theory that it was alive in 19th century when a family named Payne lived in house nearby might be correct. He told me, “Back when horse drawn wagons and stage coaches were the main mode of transportation over land, there were financial incentives to landowners to plant sugar maples along roads. I think … the payment was $20 per tree at some point in the second half of the 19th century. The rationale was that on hot summer days back when there was little forest around (remember that your land would have been completely cleared of forest north of the line of sugar maples along the road), the horses would benefit from shade.”
When I look at this tree I see reaching limbs, an open trunk, and a past much longer than my short time as a steward of the land where it grows.
In my section of Six Visions I have honored trees, parts of trees, and occasional woodland surprises.
What a nice story about life. When I lived up on the hill in Virgil, we had 100 year old maples lining the road. Part of our homestead had been pasture, and it was growing up to maples – both red and sugar. The land had been abandoned in the 1030’s, so our trees were mostly 40 years old, which we could verify when we cut firewood and counted rings. In addition to shade, the sugar maples were tapped every year and we spent much of February or March outdoors boiling sap. It was a good way to be outdoors in the sunshine while the snow was still too deep in the woods to walk much.