CRAWFORD COUNTY — The Maple Tree industry took a major hit as a result of the March ice storm. Maple producers gathered in Grayling to talk about the damage left behind and how they can move forward.
“A lot of us are going to be significantly hurt for a long period of time from the damage,” says Jennifer Richard, “A complete loss of the trees, right?”
“We got a lot of those, you know, next year, those loans are due here a couple months. Next year, the same thing. Yeah. We don’t make enough money next year. So, we bear that, and then we lose everything,” says Troy Richard.
Maple syrup producers Jennifer and Troy Richard own Hidden Acres Sugar Bush. They have 170 acres of Maple Trees and more than 172 miles of tubing lines. Fallen branches are almost waste height, not allowing them to assess all of their damage.
“We are currently trying to get from tree to tree, to remove the taps from the season that was destroyed. And, it it’s dangerous. It took us last the last four years. It took us ten days to remove taps from our maple trees. We’re expecting it to take upwards of a month.”
Jennifer and Troy explained their situation to other producers, state senator John Cherry, John Damoose, Tim Boring from Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development at a round table saying producers need help.
“Some of the challenges they’re anticipating encounters with such a program, enrollment, perhaps, some of the restrictions of some of the programs,” says Tim Boring, Director MDARD, “Hearing those and allowing us then to be responding to that about how we might pursue exemptions,. How we marshal in additional boots on the ground from a federal level.”
Jennifer says the storm hit during prime tapping week. They were able to vacuum 20 barrels of maple syrup, but they were hoping to get 80. What makes this situation harder, is hearing they would’ve made record numbers.
“We were seeing an epic year. This is our fifth year, so we keep tallies, and we were already a good 25% above where we typically were in season. So, we knew we were going to have really good numbers.”
“Then, right before the rest of us that didn’t get hit with this, hit record year,” says Troy, ”So, we talked to all of them all the time throughout the season, and they had a record year, and we were on pace to do the same.”
The hope is that assistance programs can be created to help producers restore their trees.