Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
SHELBURNE — The sweetest season of the year is underway: maple season. Last weekend, Shelburne Farms hosted a maple sugar open house complete with sweet maple popcorn, tours of the sugarbush and even an owl that calls the sugarbush home.
Bella Lacey, a Shelburne resident, was one of the many people attending the free event with family and friends.
“It was such a wonderful experience to see the intersection between the environment, families and maple sugaring,” Lacey said.
Shelburne Farms stretches over 1,400 acres. The nonprofit’s mission includes promoting sustainable agriculture through education and farm operations such as maple sugaring. The property produced 1,295 gallons of maple syrup in 2022.
The March 21-22 event at Shelburne Farms was part of the statewide Maple Sugar Open House sponsored annually by the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association. All over Vermont, sugar makers opened their doors to teach visitors about an industry that plays an important role in the state.
Vermont is the top maple syrup producer in the United States with over 3 million gallons produced in 2025, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.
At the open house, people learned how to identify sugar maples and even how to tap trees. Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation, shared traditional Abenaki stories. Representatives from Outreach for Earth Stewardship introduced visitors to a saw-whet owl, which is one of the birds that commonly live in the Vermont sugarbush. These community partners worked with Shelburne Farms to make the weekend a sweet success.
In Vermont, maple sugaring supports both people and animals. Maple sugarers rely on sales for their livelihood each year, and wild creatures rely on the sugarbush as habitat.. Aligned with that goal, Shelburne Farms has been recognized as a bird-friendly sugarbush by Audubon Vermont, according to Susie Gilmore, agricultural education coordinator at Shelburne Farms.
This all being said, climate change is greatly affecting the sugarbush and maple production as warmer temperatures shorten the sugaring season.
“The trees are just waking up really quick, so that’s something that we’re always kind of contending with,” said Dianne LaBerge, a farm based educator at Shelburne Farms.
To Shelburne Farms, pProtecting the sugarbush is about more than protecting maple syrup production and also means protecting the other flora and fauna that help the sugarbush thrive.
“The biodiversity in your sugarbush (matters), too,” LaBerge said.
Further information about maple sugaring and maple products at Shelburne Farms can be found at https://shelburnefarms.org/visit-and-learn/our-farm-campus/woodlands.