Maple syrup season is just around the corner and experts with The Ohio State University at Mansfield have been busy preparing the campus sugar bush and planning upcoming events. A recent article published by the Ohio State Alumni Magazine explores the Mansfield sugar bush and the work of Gabe Karns, visiting assistant professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Follow a winding trail into a forest on Ohio State’s Mansfield campus and you’ll find a grove of maple trees called a sugar bush. Here, faculty, staff and students work together to make one of the university’s sweetest products—pure maple syrup, a small-batch delicacy so coveted and delicious that it sells out each year.
Look around and you’ll see more than a thousand maple trees linked by plastic tubes and small computers—technology that makes harvesting the sap more efficient than hauling buckets. If your timing is right, you’ll see Buckeyes checking trees to collect data for important research.
Read more: The full article and photography are available on the Ohio State Alumni Magazine website.