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Cedar 12K runs Sunday, Feb. 8 at 11 a.m. P. 13
Serving Ladysmith, Chemainus and area
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Nanaimo photographers offer up advice P. 11
Interest in bigleaf syrup spreading Lindsay Chung THE CHRONICLE
Seven-year-old Braden Whyte came up from Duncan to check out the new Chemainus Skate Park Sunday (Jan. 31) with his grandparents. For more information about the skate park, which is now open, two months ahead of schedule, please turn to page 4. LINDSAY CHUNG
When you think of agriculture on Vancouver Island, maple syrup may not be one of the first things that comes to mind. But Gary Backlund of Ladysmith and his family are changing that. Gary, his wife Teesh and their daughter and son-in-law Katherine and Devan Banman own Backlund’s Backwoods, a managed forest overlooking the Ladysmith Harbour that is a little more than 72 acres. The family has been tapping bigleaf maple trees and producing maple syrup since 2001. Since then, they’ve been educating people through books, presentations, workshops and an informative website, and they also help organize the annual Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival in Duncan, which is taking place this weekend. As far as Gary knows, maple tapping on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands began in the late 1800s on Galiano Island. Gary and a few other Vancouver Islanders tried tapping for the first time in 2001 when they took the Master Woodland Manager component of the Small Woodlands Program of BC in 2001. “When we bought this property, we looked at what we’d use this property for, and we thought forestry, so we had professional foresters and government foresters look at the property,” he said. The foresters suggested the Backlunds cut down the maples and grow more Douglas fir, but they also said it is hard to get rid of maples, Gary recalls. “So we thought if nature wants to grow maple here, we’ll embrace maples,” he said. “We tried milling maple and all things maple. Once we
started tapping, we were hooked.” In 2002, Forest Manager Harold Macy invited five participants from the Master Woodland Manager Program — including Gary — to help him establish a commercial maple syrup industry on Vancouver Island. They set up an evaporator, which was borrowed from the University of Saskatchewan, at the UBC Oyster River Research Farm north of Courtenay. There, Gary says they collected about 1,000 litres of sap, gave workshops and held open houses. Gary recalls that when he was taking the Master Woodland Manager program, Macy brought in a little bit of syrup for them to try. He was skeptical, but when he tried it, he thought it tasted great. Gary came home, and they tapped three trees and ended up with 40 litres of sap in 36 hours. “We had beginner’s luck,” said Gary. “We really liked it. It’s just like checking the mail or checking email; you never know what’s going to be here. It’s great to be outside at this time of year.” In 2004, Gary and Katherine published Bigleaf Sugaring — Tapping the Western Maple. The book was edited by Teesh, and a second edition was published in 2012. In 2004, the Backlunds also received an Agroforestry grant to set up a demonstration project in the Ladysmith area. By this time, more than 300 people on Vancouver Island were harvesting and making maple syrup, according to Gary. More than 1,000 trees were tapped, and well over 10,000 litres of sap were harvested. The first annual Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival was held in 2008 at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. See Festival Page 3
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