Erin’s Shaple

2025

With Alyssa Anderson

The five Sugar maples (Acer Saccharum) in Erin and Benji’s backyard and twisted polypropylene

this work is a part of the patchwork ecology project, which combines art with ecological assessment and natural history to increase ecological consciousness, property by property, in New York State.

Erin and Benji’s backyard is a early-mid successional oak-maple forest in the Catskill mountains. This forest patch was cleared to be a small sheep pasture until approximately the mid-1800s and is now dominated by red maples and red oaks. ERin’s dad has a maple syrup operation further wesT, near Allegany State Preserve in New York, and sugar maples have a special place in her heart. Unlike the early-mid successional red Maples and oaks of the current forest in Erin’s backyard, the Sugar maple is a late-successional species. The glimmers of a late-successional forest are peeking through in the form of five sugar maples, all less than 15″ diameters at breast height (tiny!) but strewn throughout the site. We wanted to do a mini-bioblitz survey of the space enclosed by the shape the five maples made, which happened to be the innermost core of the site. ERin’s Shaple is an ephemeral land art installation commemorating her love of the sugar maple, the future-present-past of the forest, and the Patchwork Ecology project.