Vermont Land Trust- Traditional Abenaki Sugaring

Using technology ranging from buckets to tubing, the top of a woodstove to a high-tech reverse osmosis machine, sugarmakers condense sap from the maple tree to “liquid gold”. The Abenaki people, who lived on the land we now call Vermont for thousands of years, are an essential part of the sugaring story. They developed methods of tapping trees and using sap that they later taught to white colonists. Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk–Abenaki Nation will share the maple syrup story and ancient Abenaki sugaring traditions. In a conversation between Chief Don and VLT forester and sugarmaker Caitlin Cusack, we’ll explore the Abenaki relationship to the land and how the maple story is alive today in Abenaki-owned sugaring operations.