A plantation-style crop of 6,000 saplings can produce 400 gallons of syrup per acre, while a mature sugarbush of 80 mature maple trees produces 40 gallons per acre, researchers say.

But the insect largely ignores saplings. Sugar maple forests bristling from rugged slopes rank among the most revered features of the New England landscape.

Woven of willow, maple and other pliant saplings, twigs and branches, Snake Hollow is an undulating form with twists and turns, portholes and passageways that visitors may walk through and explore.

LOWELL —Perhaps it was a squirrel that dropped a maple acorn into the stump of the historic Pow-Wow Oak tree on Clark Road. Or maybe it was “a guardian angel,” said George Koumantzelis ...