Sugar Maple – Hardwood
Did you ever get to hear Jimi Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner? THIS Sugar Maple did!
New York. The Empire State.
August 9, 2025
The state tree of New York is the Sugar Maple. I’ve traveled to many parts of New York state in my life but for this project my wife and I took a trip to the Woodstock area in the Catskill Mountains. We hiked to the top of Indian Head mountain and experienced a great forest. The lower elevations featured many deciduous trees like Sugar Maple and American Beech. Unfortunately the American Beech is facing a new threat from a non-native nematode which attacks the trees ability to photosynthesize. It is referred to as Beech Leaf Disease and may push our Beech trees near extinction in the coming years. Beech trees provide food to many species of wildlife as well as a unique lumber. I have fond memories of playing Thomas the Tank engine with my sons when they were little. Many of their wooden trains and tracks were made of Beech lumber.
As Tamara and I climbed above 3000ft elevation we began seeing Balsam Fir trees (and quite a few other people). After that hike we traveled to a crossroad of a town called “Willow” where we found “Van Wagner road”! After a mile drive down Van Wagner road we found a sign that said “forest preserve”. It was a sign! Literally! It led to Phoenicia-Mount Tobias Wild Forest. It was just what I was looking for. We had the area all to ourselves. I found a nice Sugar Maple specimen and got my rope in the tree for the climb. As I climbed the Sugar Maple I was reminded of the many ways in which this tree enriches my life; skateboards, guitar bodies, baseball bats, basketball courts, bowling alleys, and of course syrup all come from the sustainable harvest of this wonderful tree. Later we traveled to the site of the Woodstock Music festival. At the top of the hill I found a grove of trees old enough to have witnessed the festival in 1969, and they were Sugar Maples! I never got to hear Jimi Hendrix play the national anthem but this Sugar Maple did! The arts are thriving in New York. It is my hope the forests will continue to thrive as well.
