Award-winning Syrup Flows at Fairbanks Birch Sap Cooperative

OneTree Alaska — led by Janice Dawe — took first place in the 2019 Birch Syrups World Challenge held in Russia April 27-28. This is the second victory to the organization — it first won in 2017.

The birch syrup is the product of an annual cooperative. This year, 57 participants — including households, K-12 classrooms and homeschool families — delivered 3,750 gallons of birch tree sap to OneTree’s sap-to-syrup production facility in the Lola Tilly Commons building. Participants delivered sap during an early and exceptionally long season (March 27 through May 3). The 20-plus gallons of syrup produced from the sap is delicious and ready for distribution and sales.

OneTree participated in Alaska Agriculture Day on May 5 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden on the Fairbanks campus. It also enjoyed hosting four field trips to the STEAM Studio during the sap collection season — with 80 home school families from the BEST, Cyberlynx and Kinderwoods Forest School programs from mid-March through early April.

OneTree Alaska, part of the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension, is an ACEP partner for science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) programs sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

For more information on OneTree products and events, please contact Jan Dawe at 907-474-5517 or jcdawe@alaska.edu.