To get the sap needed for this potion, a rotating group of students, homeowners and others donate their time tapping Interior birch trees.

Birch trees can also be tapped. To be considered for tapping, trees need to be about 40 years old to make sure they're healthy and sustainable to support themselves after sap is taken, O’Brien said.

Sap can be collected from birch or box elder trees, also in the maple family, but it takes more sap to make the syrup, advised Friends of Maplewood volunteers.

The spiel is a cone-shaped piece of plastic that is hammered into the tree, allowing the sap to flow into the bucket. As far as which birch tree to tap, Johnson looks for one with a wide diameter.

Researchers already know that the three tree varieties -- maple, walnut and birch -- have sweet sap that runs and can be tapped when the weather begins to warm up.

FAIRBANKS — A glistening on the tips of the birch branches at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus told Jan Dawe that it was time to tap another tree Wednesday morning. From a distance ...