I own a lake house in Maine, and while I have no maples for sap, gathering it is not far away. Maple syrup is not inexpensive, so it figures pirates are after the liquid gold. This passage reminds me of how some people try to do whatever they can to get the most out of bonsai by pushing them to develop faster, bigger, better, regardless of cost to the tree
..."The sweet-toothed swindlers aren't just trespassing, they're damaging valuable trees.
Violators often use drill bits that are 7/8 of an inch, nearly triple the industry standard of 5/16 of an inch, to drill holes for the taps, Liba said. They're also using PVC piping that gouges the trees, and putting four taps in trees that should have only two, thereby creating undue stress on the trees."
These thieves dont care about the tree being able to produce sap in 5 years, or even next year. They just care about how much money they can sell the sap for now. The wardens should plug the holes in the maples with flesh from the pirates.
(not really, but jeez, syrup rustlers?)
