After an abnormally dry summer, maple syrup producers in the Atlantic region are anxiously waiting to see what winter weather brings and how it’ll impact their yield.
“I’m quite concerned on the amount of sap and the sugar content that we’ll have,” said Paul Reynolds, who co-owns Little Mactaquac Maples with his wife, Wendy Reynolds.
The couple’s operation in Mactaquac, N.B., which offers everything from traditional maple syrup to maple barbecue sauce and maple-sweetened salsa, has been a labour of love for them.
“We started out 17 years ago with 75 taps and now we’re at 1,200 taps and our products have been tested around the world,” said Paul.
However, the business owners worry they have a difficult spring ahead — similar to the challenges they faced in 2020 when there was another drought.
“The following season, the maples did not produce very high sugar content,” he said, adding that it required double the work to boil the sap to create syrup.
“It presents many more challenges to produce the product, and it’s much more expensive.”
Back then, he says some winter rain helped with the sap flow. This year, if winter and spring continue to be dry, it will mean less sap and potentially less sugar.
He’s not alone in his concern.
A regional director of New Brunswick’s Maple Syrup Association says trees around the region are stressed and the lack of water could cause permanent damage to weaker trees.
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“If this continues, we may want to start being a little more conscientious of how we’re treating our maple trees … we don’t want to over tap them or stress them out more than we do,” said David Briggs.
Maple researcher, Adam Wild, is watching the impact closely too. He says the recent drought can have lasting effects for years to come.
“If the trees aren’t producing as much sugar, that’s certainly going to impact their overall growth,” said Wild, who is a specialist with the Cornell Maple Program in New York.
“Sugars that the trees are producing is that tree’s energy source for putting on new growth, for developing leaves, for functioning and staying alive. So it’s vital for the trees to have.”
Quebec, Ontario producers keeping eye on season
New Brunswick is the second largest producer of maple syrup in Canada, behind Quebec.
According to Statistics Canada, Quebec had a 90.7 per cent share of production in 2024, while New Brunswick had 6.1 per cent and Ontario had 3.1 per cent.
A spokesperson for Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which represents 13,500 producers in that province, said it’s too early to estimate the impact of drought conditions on next year’s production.
The organization notes that “good snow precipitation” in the winter months can overcome the “negative apprehended impact” of drought conditions over the summer and fall.
John Williams, the executive director of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association, says the dry summer will probably affect their season as well but it won’t be as severe as what the Atlantic region is experiencing.
“New Brunswick has been hit harder than many parts of Ontario. Having said that, we have high levels of drought in some areas, particularly kind of the more northerly maple belt,” he said.
“We could see lower sugar levels because if the trees are stressed, they just can’t produce as much sugar through photosynthesis during the summer.”
Williams says Ontario’s producers are more spread out within the province, and have faced varied irritants and issues over the year.
In March, some producers were heavily impacted by an ice storm that damaged up to 80 per cent of trees.
“If they’re in a drought area as well, that’s a real double whammy,” he said.
Currently, some producers are also experiencing defoliation from trees due to caterpillars .
“Overall, we will probably see some effects from the drought,” he said. “We’ll have pockets where it hurts more.”
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