Bill and his fiancé, Lori on their graduation day on the grounds in front of Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto .
BILL HUBBERT was born on November 22, 1960, in Sundridge to his proud parents, Harold and Alice Hubbert. Bill attended Sundridge Public School, Land of Lakes Senior Public School and subsequently graduated as an Ontario Scholar with the AHSS Class of 1979. Bill would tell you he was not an active participant in the social scene and extra-curricular activities at AHSS. Although there may be some truth to that, there are several good reasons. From a very early age Bill was active in the family maple syrup business (more to come on that below) and worked at Kent Trusses through high school and part of university. Matter of fact on the night of Bill’s grade 13 graduation, after the graduation ceremonies he went back to work to complete the 5 PM – 3 AM shift.
After high school Bill enrolled in the Forestry program at the University of Toronto earning an honours Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree. Once a month one would see Bill trek over to the Medical Sciences building to meet with Paul Preston and Gord Briggs, swap stories about AHSS and get an update on what was going on up north. Most of the updates came from the Almaguin News that Paul would bring along to the monthly meeting.
Forest Management at U of T was a small program that took in approximately 80 students each year. You might guess what happened during university – Bill met another “forester” from North Bay of all places, Lori, and romance blossomed. Bill and Lori married on August 27, 1983, and have three daughters, Mary Jane, BA and Sarah.
After Bill’s second year of university, he got a job fighting forest fires for four months in the Timmins area. After Bill’s third year of university, he spent the summer collecting forest inventory information in Algonquin Park. By that time Bill and Lori were engaged and Bill would travel to Kapuskasing every two weeks to visit with Lori. On graduation Bill worked for the Algonquin Forestry Authority in a seasonal contract position for five years before obtaining full-time employment in 1988 as an Area Forester with the Algonquin Forestry Authority.
After eight years, Bill took on the position of Area Manager for the west and southern portions of Algonquin Park and remained in that position for 21 years until his retirement in 2016. The Area Manager role involved developing and managing forest management, access, harvest and planning activities as well as establishing and nurturing long-term working relationships with client mills and contractors. The forestry program in Algonquin is quite large with Bill responsible for harvest activities on an average of 10,000 acres each year of primarily maple dominated forest stands.
The Algonquin Forestry Authority is considered a model of how forest management can be done in an environmentally sustainable way within a park. Bill led several tours of foreign delegates from around the world through Algonquin Park. On one particularly memorable tour Bill was stopped by the head of the group of Chinese forestry executives. Bill was rather perceptive and realized that the individual was important because the assistant holding his umbrella over him also wore a suit. Bill and the Chinese delegates stopped at a locked cable gate on a logging road to open it to allow for the bus passage. The individual approached Bill in excitement and through the interpreter asked Bill “where is the gate guard with the gun?” The individual could not get over how people followed the rules with no gun needed! At the end of the tour Bill was presented with a little cloth box which he stuffed into his coat pocket (probably breaking all protocols). Later when Bill opened the box he found it held several old coins from China one of which was over 2,000 years old.
After high school Bill enrolled in the Forestry program at the University of Toronto earning an honours Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree. Once a month one would see Bill trek over to the Medical Sciences building to meet with Paul Preston and Gord Briggs, swap stories about AHSS and get an update on what was going on up north. Most of the updates came from the Almaguin News that Paul would bring along to the monthly meeting.
Forest Management at U of T was a small program that took in approximately 80 students each year. You might guess what happened during university – Bill met another “forester” from North Bay of all places, Lori, and romance blossomed. Bill and Lori married on August 27, 1983, and have three daughters, Mary Jane, BA and Sarah.
After Bill’s second year of university, he got a job fighting forest fires for four months in the Timmins area. After Bill’s third year of university, he spent the summer collecting forest inventory information in Algonquin Park. By that time Bill and Lori were engaged and Bill would travel to Kapuskasing every two weeks to visit with Lori. On graduation Bill worked for the Algonquin Forestry Authority in a seasonal contract position for five years before obtaining full-time employment in 1988 as an Area Forester with the Algonquin Forestry Authority.
After eight years, Bill took on the position of Area Manager for the west and southern portions of Algonquin Park and remained in that position for 21 years until his retirement in 2016. The Area Manager role involved developing and managing forest management, access, harvest and planning activities as well as establishing and nurturing long-term working relationships with client mills and contractors. The forestry program in Algonquin is quite large with Bill responsible for harvest activities on an average of 10,000 acres each year of primarily maple dominated forest stands.
The Algonquin Forestry Authority is considered a model of how forest management can be done in an environmentally sustainable way within a park. Bill led several tours of foreign delegates from around the world through Algonquin Park. On one particularly memorable tour Bill was stopped by the head of the group of Chinese forestry executives. Bill was rather perceptive and realized that the individual was important because the assistant holding his umbrella over him also wore a suit. Bill and the Chinese delegates stopped at a locked cable gate on a logging road to open it to allow for the bus passage. The individual approached Bill in excitement and through the interpreter asked Bill “where is the gate guard with the gun?” The individual could not get over how people followed the rules with no gun needed! At the end of the tour Bill was presented with a little cloth box which he stuffed into his coat pocket (probably breaking all protocols). Later when Bill opened the box he found it held several old coins from China one of which was over 2,000 years old.
Bill’s first love is Lori and their three daughters. His second love is forestry, forest management and maple syrup – some people say that maple syrup runs through his veins. Maple syrup production has been in the Hubbert family now for six generations. Bill’s great-great-grandfather eventually landed in Oro Township in 1861 and was the first generation of Hubbert’s making maple syrup in Canada! Bill’s great-grandfather farmed in Innisfil Township before moving to Manitoulin Island where he produced maple syrup. Bill’s parents, Harold and Alice purchased 200 acres in Strong Township in 1948 as part of the Veteran Lands Act designed to settle returning World War II veterans on farms. The first maple syrup crop was in the spring of 1949 and this farm is where maple syrup is produced to this day. All sap from close to 2,000 trees was collected by horse and sleigh and the syrup was produced in a sugarhouse deep in the woodlot.
Working side-by-side with his parents, Bill and his wife Lori took over operations of the farm while working full-time. Bill and Lori purchased the farm from his parents and eventually added to the woodlot by purchasing four adjacent farms. The sugarbush covers approximately 450 acres and there is another 450 acres of mixed forest to go along with a variety of lakes, ponds and old fields bringing the farm to 1,030 acres. Any open areas are assessed for potential for other future farm uses while providing habitat for wildlife.
Bill and Lori’s daughter, Sarah along with her partner Xaver are the sixth generation of syrup makers and work side-by-side to help with the operations.
Maple sap is collected at six different locations around the farm and then transferred to the sugarhouse via pumps. The network of tubing stretching from tree to tree is more than 150 kilometres! The whole system is under a vacuum system to ensure freshness of the sap as it travels rapidly from each tree to the sugarhouse.
Sap is concentrated via one of two reverse osmosis units prior to being boiled in a custom designed steam evaporator. The reverse osmosis units remove over 75% of the water allowing for faster processing and less use of fuel for boiling. All the equipment used is stainless/food grade and in many cases the equipment was designed by Bill and custom made for their unique situation.
Maple syrup is packaged for sale or stored in stainless steel barrels for bottling later. Filtering and bottling equipment is operated year-round to ensure there is a supply of high-quality syrup for customers and retail partners. The maple crop is variable with many factors coming in to play in determining the volume of maple syrup produced each year. The general rule-of-thumb is that it takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup. Production in the last number of years has ranged from 9,000 to 28,000 litres of finished maple syrup. 2022 was a record year with production of 39,000 litres of syrup – the weather and mother nature were kind to the Hubbert family in 2022! Looks like Bill needed to take a break after setting the new Hubbert family record!
Working side-by-side with his parents, Bill and his wife Lori took over operations of the farm while working full-time. Bill and Lori purchased the farm from his parents and eventually added to the woodlot by purchasing four adjacent farms. The sugarbush covers approximately 450 acres and there is another 450 acres of mixed forest to go along with a variety of lakes, ponds and old fields bringing the farm to 1,030 acres. Any open areas are assessed for potential for other future farm uses while providing habitat for wildlife.
Bill and Lori’s daughter, Sarah along with her partner Xaver are the sixth generation of syrup makers and work side-by-side to help with the operations.
Maple sap is collected at six different locations around the farm and then transferred to the sugarhouse via pumps. The network of tubing stretching from tree to tree is more than 150 kilometres! The whole system is under a vacuum system to ensure freshness of the sap as it travels rapidly from each tree to the sugarhouse.
Sap is concentrated via one of two reverse osmosis units prior to being boiled in a custom designed steam evaporator. The reverse osmosis units remove over 75% of the water allowing for faster processing and less use of fuel for boiling. All the equipment used is stainless/food grade and in many cases the equipment was designed by Bill and custom made for their unique situation.
Maple syrup is packaged for sale or stored in stainless steel barrels for bottling later. Filtering and bottling equipment is operated year-round to ensure there is a supply of high-quality syrup for customers and retail partners. The maple crop is variable with many factors coming in to play in determining the volume of maple syrup produced each year. The general rule-of-thumb is that it takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup. Production in the last number of years has ranged from 9,000 to 28,000 litres of finished maple syrup. 2022 was a record year with production of 39,000 litres of syrup – the weather and mother nature were kind to the Hubbert family in 2022! Looks like Bill needed to take a break after setting the new Hubbert family record!
Bill and Lori’s goal is to make the best syrup possible and have invested substantially in their sugarhouse and associated equipment with that goal. Their successful pursuit of this goal has been recognized with the following awards:
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair – world champions 1998, 1999 and 2002, CP Corbett trophy 2018, Premier Exhibitor Award 2018
North American Maple Syrup Council – 1st place 2017
Bill and Lori take great pride in managing the impact and enhancing the benefits to the natural environment through current sustainability practices – gas powered collection locations have been phased out in favour of electrically operated pump houses, a solar system on the farm provides equivalent renewable energy to match the needs of the sugarhouse, and logs are selectively harvested for use in their farm buildings to reduce the carbon footprint. A trial application of lime spread via helicopter was conducted in the spring of 2019. The impact on the environment is forefront in the day-to-day activities and longer-term projects at the Hubbert farm.
Maple syrup products – pure maple syrup, maple butter, Canadian whiskey barrel aged maple syrup (everyone should have some of this), and maple BBQ sauce are available on-line, in-person at the farm, through several independent stories from Barrie to the south and Sault Ste. Marie to the north, and finally through a growing number of culinary partners. In Bill’s spare time (if you can believe it exists), Bill acts as the northeastern Ontario representative for CDL Maple Sugaring Equipment responsible for sales, customer contact and education on CDL’s complete line of maple sugaring equipment.
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair – world champions 1998, 1999 and 2002, CP Corbett trophy 2018, Premier Exhibitor Award 2018
North American Maple Syrup Council – 1st place 2017
Bill and Lori take great pride in managing the impact and enhancing the benefits to the natural environment through current sustainability practices – gas powered collection locations have been phased out in favour of electrically operated pump houses, a solar system on the farm provides equivalent renewable energy to match the needs of the sugarhouse, and logs are selectively harvested for use in their farm buildings to reduce the carbon footprint. A trial application of lime spread via helicopter was conducted in the spring of 2019. The impact on the environment is forefront in the day-to-day activities and longer-term projects at the Hubbert farm.
Maple syrup products – pure maple syrup, maple butter, Canadian whiskey barrel aged maple syrup (everyone should have some of this), and maple BBQ sauce are available on-line, in-person at the farm, through several independent stories from Barrie to the south and Sault Ste. Marie to the north, and finally through a growing number of culinary partners. In Bill’s spare time (if you can believe it exists), Bill acts as the northeastern Ontario representative for CDL Maple Sugaring Equipment responsible for sales, customer contact and education on CDL’s complete line of maple sugaring equipment.
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Bill sat on the advisory committee for the Forestry Program at Sir Sandford Fleming College for over 25 years including a stint as Chair.
Our man Bill held the position of Sunday School teacher at Sundridge United Church for a few years as well, clearly Bill is a man of many talents! Oh, by the way we would be remiss to mention that there is now a seventh generation involved in maple syrup production. Their first grandchild courtesy of their oldest daughter has Maple as her middle name! Here is the latest addition to the family overlooking the evaporator - Bill and Lori’s second grandchild, Russell |
The Pandemic has slowed everyone’s travel plans lately. Bill and Lori had begun to travel more extensively since “retirement” in 2016. They are members of a worldwide organization of travelers and hosts (SERVAS) who believe in spreading peace in the world through personal interaction. If you get a chance, ask Bill and Lori about their experiences making new friends during their visits to other countries.
https://www.hubbertsmaple.com/
https://www.hubbertsmaple.com/