Gov. Kathy Hochul used the maple products display at the New York State Fair in Syracuse Wednesday to sign legislation that essentially opens up swathes of state land to the maple industry.
The state has the most tappable maple trees of any state in the Northeast. But many of them are not available to maple syrup producers because they are on state land. That’s because the state only allows someone to lease property for five years.
It’s just not worth the investment according to Nathan Williams, owner of Dutch Hill Maple in the Onondaga County town of Tully.
"The investment that it takes to install a sugar bus between the maple lines, you know, you have stainless steel storage tanks and transportation equipment, it's quite an investment,” Williams said. “And in five years, you can't even pay for your equipment in most cases."
Legislation signed at the fair will allow leasing of state land to be used for sap production and tree tapping for 10 years to increase the return on investment. State Sen. Rachel May (D-Syracuse) was one of the sponsors of the bill.
“Sometimes you can't believe that you need state legislation to do some of these things, but this one is going to make a difference,” said May. The five-year leases were good for logging, basically, but not really good for things that actually preserve the trees, so I'm excited about this."
Hochul signed other legislation Wednesday to help the state’s agriculture industry, including a law that allows farm wineries that experience crop loss to use apples grown outside of New York for state-labeled cider.
