Organizers prepare to host family friendly festival Feb. 22-23
(WSIL) -- When visitors make their way to Touch of Nature this weekend, they may not realize the warm weather they're enjoying is also decreasing the amount of syrup they are coming out to try.
The Maple Syrup Festival and Pancake Breakfast continues to draw more visitors each year, with pouring a healthy touch of maple syrup extracted from trees around them. The growing number of visitors means an increasing need for a healthy harvest, which warm temperatures have hampered.
"If you think about sap, it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make about one gallon of syrup," said Assistant Director of Outdoor Education, Brian Croft. "We've had an unseasonably warm winter, and so our production has been a little stalled this year. Again, luckily we've had this cold snap now, which we're kind of catching back up."
Croft said there will be plenty of maple syrup to pour over the hundreds of pancakes for the crowds this weekend, but he and the organizer do have concerns about the winter-warming trend southern Illinois is experiencing.
"There's less full buckets than there are, than there used to be," said Croft. "And, it's something we're noticing and just preparing accordingly."
Justin Schoof tells News 3, southern Illinois' winters are warming, a trend he said is on course to continue. Schoof is the director for Southern Illinois University's School of Earth Systems and Sustainability, and a professor in Geography and Environmental Resources.
"We have to remember, winter in southern Illinois is highly variable," said Schoof, adding that all one has to do is compare this week to the last. "We have been warmer than average year-to-date, but, we haven't been warmer than average in the last week."
Despite those variables, winter isn't just warming here. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, , with NOAA reporting that, "The four warmest Januaries documented in the climate record have occurred since 2016; the 10 warmest have all occurred since 2002."
In southern Illinois, this warming trend is contributing to more rain each spring, and challenging ag producers like the maple syrup festival. Schoof said, the increase in precipitation is significant and keeps farmers out of the fields, adds to flooding and threatens a viable harvest.
"The largest increase in precipitation in our region has happened in the spring, and it's been about a half-an-inch or so per decade since 1950," said Schoof. He adds that even though winters here are warming, "You still have a lot of variability, and you're still going to get cold weather even in a warmer world."
And those cold temperatures arrived just in time to help provide that warm syrup this weekend.
"Come for the Syrup, come for the food, come for the music, whatever it is that gets you out here, just come," said Croft, adding that it is a great way to spend time with family and reduce some cabin fever.
The Maple Syrup Festival and Pancake Breakfast is this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 22-23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features a full day of activities. It includes live music, vendors, activities for the kids and more, with maple syrup making demonstrations throughout each day.
You can find .
