If it gets too warm too fast, experts say it would hurt sugar maple production statewide.
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- The unusual winter weather could cost shoppers more money.
An ecologist says Blandford Nature Center's sugar maples can produce anywhere from 20-100 gallons of syrup, depending on the weather.
She says the maples begin storing sugar in the summertime, but they rely on wet, snowy winters that gradually give way to a spring warm-up -- something West Michigan isn't seeing, so far.
"We're nervous, for sure," Kristin Tindall, Blandford's ecology education xoordinator. "Lots of people have been asking, 'What do you think it's going to do to the tree, not having a lot of snow in the ground? Will that maybe affect the roots?' It's something still up in the air for us...how much it will affect the trees."
If it gets too warm too fast, experts say it would hurt sugar maple production statewide, and shoppers could see maple syrup prices rise.