Peter Smallidge

Steve Childs demonstrates the finer points of making maple confections at the first Cornell Maple Camp held in August at Cornell's Arnot Teaching and Research Forest.

Cornell's Maple Program and one of its staff members have each garnered a national award.

The North American Maple Syrup Council awarded its inaugural Richard G. Haas Distinguished Service Award Oct. 26 to the Cornell Maple Program and its campus-based specialists: Brian Chabot, former director of the program; Stephen Childs, director; Michael Farrell, northern maple specialist and director of the program's Uihlein Field Station; and Peter Smallidge, New York state extension forester and former director of the program.

The program was recognized for its outstanding support for maple syrup producers, from "tree to table," through both research and outreach.

Currently, the maple industry generates $15 million annually in New York, but has the potential for making as much as $92 million a year, according to Farrell.

The second award, the Technology Transfer Award from the Society of America Foresters, will go to Smallidge later this month for his efforts to serve maple producers, woodland owners and natural resource professionals through applied research and by disseminating information through myriad media.

He is being recognized in particular for ForestConnect -- live, Web-based seminars on woodlot management that he launched in 2007, the first such series in the country, Smallidge said. The series runs 11 times per year with 2,300 registered users and average attendance of more than 100 people each month, he said.

In addition to ForestConnect, another webinar focuses on maple syrup production, and Smallidge recently launched another site to facilitate social networking among forest owners, and he maintains an active Twitter feed, @CornellWoodlot.

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.