We seek to advance understanding of constraints and opportunities for development of the NYS maple syrup industry, and sustainable landscapes more generally, through application of an institutional analysis of innovation.

The New York maple sugar industry is lagging despite growth opportunities. Vermont, Maine and Quebec are expanding production and market share, while New York, the third leading maple sugar state in the U.S., appears to languish (Cornell Maple Program). Loss of forest-based enterprises that generate income streams through maintenance of healthy forests exacerbates the dual policy challenges of economic development and forest conservation in the Northeast. A vibrant maple sugar industry has the potential to contribute simultaneously to both of these policy goals. Sugar-bearing forests create jobs in and out of the woods as part of a regional development strategy, and the income from sugar sustains rapidly declining forests, as revenue streams from maple-related enterprises reduce incentives to engage in logging practices and land sales that permanently degrade forests. These mutually reinforcing feedbacks between socioeconomic functions (e.g., employment, income, identity) and ecosystem functions (e.g., hydrologic and biogeochemical cycling, wildlife habitat) are the central design element of working landscape, a pragmatic approach to sustainable development. While maple sugar can reasonably be expected to make only modest contributions to sustainable development in the region, this forest-based sector can serve as an effective model system for researching working landscapes, a critical element of a global problematic.

Workign with leaders of the maple industry in the state and with Cornell faculty and extension, we developed a targeted research project to address a set of questions of specific interest to maple producers, maple sector leaders and social scientists interested in development of workign landscapes. We designed a mail survey and collected 275 responses; a response rate of 69%. This dataset contains over 200 variables and will allow us to address three general sets of questions: 1)what development trajectories do we observe at the level of enteprises, regions and the sector as a whole, and what structural factors explain a producers` trajectory? 2) To what extent is maple syrup production compelementary to forest management and forest health. and 3) How do producer`s status in networks (access to information and resources for production of knowledge) affect their business trajectory and environmental stewardship. No database of this kind exists, thus it will add value to Cornell`s effort to support NYS maple. More generally, as primary commodity-oriented industries continue to decline in NY State, value added agricultural production, production of cultural and recreational services and ecosystem services will become increasingly central. Enhanced understanding of how to catalyze entrepreneurship and collective action among small firms engaged in diverse forms of sustainable natural resource exploitation, will enhance transition to multifucntional rural landscapes

Our research adds to existing strength in DNR and CALS and NY State in support of maple production and in support of diverse, sustainable landscapes.