Temps Still Too Cold For Chicago Area Maple Trees To Start Dripping Sap

(CBS) -- The time is right but not the temperature for Chicagoland Sugar Maples to start dripping their sap into collecting buckets to make syrup.

Environmental educator Jennifer Berlinghof says the Maples need several days of freeze thaw cycles before their sap will start rising.

She says the only cycle Chicagoland has been providing is just freeze, then more freeze then more freeze. But she says her March weekend Maple Syrup hikes will continue regardless in Ryerson Woods, west of I94 and south of Half Day Road.

Berlinghof says visitors will get to see the sugar maple trees, drill a sap spout in a maple log, and also taste some maple syrup. They just won't see the sap dripping from her 15 sugar maple trees until the temperature starts cycling below freezing at night and up into the 40s during the day to let the trees know when it's time to start production.