• Sugar maples play a vital role in forest ecology.Anthony-Masterson/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  The sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is a towering hardwood tree native to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Sugar maples are renowned for their brilliant yellow to scarlet autumn foliage and for the sweet syrup produced by boiling down the tree sap during late winter. The ecological importance of sugar maple trees exceeds that of its aesthetic and culinary uses, providing wildlife habitat and playing a vital role in forest ecology.
  
  

Winter Browse

• Sugar maples provide winter browse for white-tailed deer, moose, and snowshoe hare, reports the United States Forest Service. The leaves that are shed in autumn retain high levels of calcium, magnesium and potassium, making them nutritionally desirable browse compared to other tree species that do not hold these minerals in their seasonally dropped leaves. The twigs, seeds, and buds of the sugar maple also feed red, gray, and flying squirrels, while porcupines gnaw on its bark, sometimes girdling the tree.
  
  

Bird Habitat

• Songbirds commonly nest in sugar maples, as do the flicker and pileated woodpeckers and screech owls. The leaf flycatcher also relies on the sugar maple, picking insects from the tree's leaves. When populations of sugar maples decline in a region, the leaf flycatcher species population shows increased stress.
  
  

Nitrogen Cycle

• Sugar maples play a pivotal role in the nitrogen cycle of the forest ecology. Gary M. Lovett and Myron J. Mitchell noted in a 2004 study that the biochemistry of sugar maple roots creates a highly mobile form of nitrate ion that is more likely to leach out into water bodies, causing negative effects to aquatic environments. Sugar maple populations may be on the rise as environmental factors are causing a decline in the American beech, another tree species that grows in similar habitat conditions. An increase in sugar maples may lead to increased nitrogen pollution in streams and ponds.
  
  

Earthworms and Fungi

• Earthworms are more diverse and numerous beneath sugar maples than beneath other tree species, according to the University of Wisconsin's Bioweb. The large, nutrient-rich leaf litter that is released in the fall by mature sugar maples contributes to this earthworm bonanza. Sugar maple roots also interact with a variety of fungi species. This symbiotic relationship allows the maple tree to use the fungi to absorb more nutrients and water volume from the soil to support the growth of the tree's enormous crown, while the fungi also benefit from the nutrients and water pulled from deep underground by the sugar maple's deep roots.