Michael A. Rechlin

Michael A Rechlin is a life-long educator who believes in a hands-on project centered approach to education. In publishing Maple Syrup: The Science and the Art of Sugaring he hopes to encourage others to explore the wonders of sap flow and sugar making. And to do it with an understanding, often from the tree's perspective, of why it all happen. Mike had been Forestry Division head at Paul Smith's College, which has a 1,200 tap student run sugarbush, for over 10 years. He moved from there to...See more

Michael A Rechlin is a life-long educator who believes in a hands-on project centered approach to education. In publishing Maple Syrup: The Science and the Art of Sugaring he hopes to encourage others to explore the wonders of sap flow and sugar making. And to do it with an understanding, often from the tree's perspective, of why it all happen. Mike had been Forestry Division head at Paul Smith's College, which has a 1,200 tap student run sugarbush, for over 10 years. He moved from there to hanging his buckets in the forests of Principia College in southern Illinois, where he taught a class in Sugarbush Management. These days he resides in West Virginia, where he helped to establish the Dry Fork Maple Works, a 20,000 tap state of the art commercial sugaring operation, and works with the West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers Association to promote the growth of the sugaring industry within the state. He was lead author in a December 2005 issue of "Maple Syrup Digest" titled: Making Maple Syrup in a Land of Funnel Cakes and Pulled Pork, where he recounts the trials of syrup making on the southern edge of the Sugar Maple range. And, had a piece on the expanding interest in sugaring in West Virginia in the December 2014 issue of Maple News. Born in Buffalo NY, I attended Paul Smith's College (AAS in Forestry), the University of Michigan (B.S. Forest Management, and M.S. resource ecology) and SUNY/ESF (Ph.D. Natural Resource Policy). See less