Creek Iverson, manager of the Brook Farm Project, New Paltz, NY, explains to a group of people volunteering for a day of maple sugaring prep work, that in order to tap a sugar maple tree in the best spot possible, one should find a spot where the tree is the warmest, typically where the sun hits the tree the most, which would be located on the south side of the tree’s trunk. Photo by Dawna M. Cservak.