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Susquehanna County resident Megan Holleran talks to three state police officers as a tree-cutting crew watches in the background on Feb. 10, 2016. Holleran is trying to save her family's maple trees and 5 acres of land from being plowed to make way for the Constitution Pipeline.

(Submitted by Rich Garella)

In the ongoing battle of maple syrup versus natural gas, natural gas just won.

A federal judge on Friday afternoon gave the OK to Constitution Pipeline builders to cut down about three acres of a Pennsylvania family's maple trees. It's a decision that will help connect the fracked gas from Susquehanna County shale fields with consumer markets in New York and New England.

But it also ends the Holleran family's maple syrup production at its property on Three Lakes Road in New Milford.

How soon those trees will be cut down is unclear.

A spokesman for Oklahoma-based Williams Partners said the company appreciates "the court's prompt resolution of this matter," but he didn't know when a subcontractor would cut down the trees.

Judge Malachy Mannion's ruling to uphold Williams' eminent domain status ensures the company can start cutting down the trees immediately, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the work has to be completed by March 31 to avoid disrupting the habitats of birds and bats.

Whenever the tree cutters show up, the landowners won't stand in their way, according to family spokeswoman Megan Holleran.

"We know they're allowed to cut down the trees, but we're still hoping they may not. My family's not going to do anything to violate the court order," she said.

If they do violate the order, they could be arrested by state police or U.S. Marshals, according to the judge.

Williams is moving forward with the 124-mile pipeline that will "connect one of the largest natural gas supply areas in the world - right here in Pennsylvania - with communities in the northeastern United States, so that they too can enjoy the benefits of this cost-effective and environmentally beneficial energy resource," spokesman Chris Stockton said in an emailed statement.

The $875 million project is still awaiting some environmental permits in New York.

Holleran said they should wait for those permits before cutting down about 200 of the family's maple trees.

"If they cut them down and the project doesn't move forward, we can't get these trees back," she said.

Williams is waiting on permits from the New York Department of Conservation and the Army Corp of Engineers, but it will move forward, Stockton said.

"The project is under the jurisdiction of the federal government, and the federal government already approved it," he said.

Constitution Pipeline is on target to be in service by the end of this year.