GAYLORD, Mich. – Federal dollars are being sought in Michigan to help recover from the loss of more than 100,000 sugar maple trees in the state during a major ice storm in late March.

David Noonan, president of the Michigan Maple Syrup Association, said the state was in the process of a record-breaking year but ended up losing one third of its production for the season to the storm.

“That’s a substantial amount of syrup,” he said.

He estimated the number of sugar maple trees in the state lost from the weight of thick ice, causing them to snap, at more than 100,000.

Michigan is the fifth leading state in maple syrup production at nearly 200,000 gallons in 2023, according to USDA.

About a dozen counties impacted by the storm across the northern Lower Peninsula are eligible for financial assistance from Washington, D.C., after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared them a disaster area.

The damage stretched from Charlevoix close to Lake Michigan to Alpena near Lake Huron.

Dale Forrester, a major producer who lost about one-third of his sugar maple trees and all his sap lines near Gaylord, said the storm “just made a shipwreck mess of the woods.”

All the vacuum lines carrying sap from 10,000 trees to his sugar house were forced to the ground by fallen tops of trees and branches.

Forrester said his insurance will cover about $25,000 of the damage but not the roughly $150,000 it will cost to replace the sap lines.

Forrester said enough branches on another one-third of his trees were damaged to the point where they might not survive.

“It’s sad,” he said.

Forrester said he plans to continue his lifelong practice of making maple syrup, a tradition handed down from his father and grandfather who tapped trees while dairy farming in upstate New York.

However, Forrester said he’ll have to go into his woods first and remove what’s left of the snapped trees along with all his lines to reestablish his operation.

Forrester said he’ll also have to find another woods where the storm produced just rain 30 to 40 miles to the south if he wants to keep up with his previous levels of production.

He estimated the value of his annual syrup production before the storm at $150,000 to $200,000.

Other storm damaged syrup makers are facing a similar daunting task.

“It’s going to be a lot of clean up in the next year or so,” Noonan said. 

Noonan, whose maple syrup making operation near Traverse City just missed the ice portion of the storm, said he hopes for good results in a meeting soon to discuss assistance with federal lawmakers from the state and Tim Boring, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Noonan said he didn’t know how much funding could be possible. but would like to see at least $500,000 awarded for helping producers in their recovery.

“We’re going to try to get some kind of relief of some kind,” he said.

Noonan said a quick full recovery is not possible, though, since it takes anywhere from 20 to 40 years for maple trees, once planted, to become large enough to tap.

In the meantime, he said storm-damaged producers will have to find other trees to make up for lost production or purchase syrup from makers possibly outside of Michigan to keep up with demand from customers.

“Those states, hopefully, will have excess syrup for sale so that we can cover our sales,” he said.

Noonan, who has over 1,200 taps, said one reason he made more syrup than ever before this year was having a good number of days above freezing and nights below freezing during late winter and early spring.

Such fluctuations in temperature activate what’s typically described as nature’s sap pump inside the trees.