Courtesy Photo A fallen tree on a barn at the 4D Acre Farm in Hawks.

ALPENA — Like many community members, the recent ice storm affected lives and livelihoods. One industry that may be affected for years to come is the maple syrup industry in northern Michigan. However, despite the challenges, one maple syrup farm has bounced back before the season ends.

Nathan Delke, owner of 4D Acre Farm in Hawks, said that the farm only went without power for 30 hours. He said that was because their power comes from underground lines that are directed from a Hawks substation.

“We are very blessed to have that situation,” Delke said.

Overall, Delke said that the wood facing east took the brunt of the storm, however, most of the sap tubing and equipment were damaged.

“(We put in) 200 man hours in two days to get things repaired and back up and running,” Delke said. “Fortunately, the pump house didn’t receive too much damage.”

Delke explained that the farm has miles of tubing that connects trees to a central pump house. This pump house holds the sap that is eventually boiled down.

Concerning the trees, Delke said that the maples fared well, though they lost many branches. He said that this might affect future sap production.

“(We are) assuming the trees will drop in production in the next year or two,” Delke said. “Trees will put more energy into growing branches than (producing sap).”

As far as cost, Delke couldn’t yet give a ballpark estimate as to how much the storm has cost the farm.

“I won’t have a good answer till the season is done,” Delke said.

With one to two weeks left in the sap season, Dekle is expecting some type of production loss and a five to 10% increase in fuel cost for the business. This increase is mostly due to having to run generators throughout the farm.

Besides the business side of Delke’s work, he said the biggest challenge throughout all this was waiting.

“It was two days, three days we couldn’t get into the woods to assess the damage…the waiting process was the biggest challenge,” Delke said.

Through that waiting, Delke said all he wanted to do was to draw up some kind of game plan and make some of those decisions. Unfortunately, according to Delke, it was just unsafe to do it right away.

Despite the challenges, Delke has embraced the situation as any farmer does.

“It’s typical of farming to take what you are given … when Mother Nature throws a curveball, you try to draw up a plan,” Delke said. “Got to roll with the punches.”

Overall, Delke said that the farm hasn’t received any relief funding for the damages the farm has incurred, though there are some maple syrup producers beginning those conversations with state representatives.

There is also a GoFundMe for maple syrup producers affected by the recent ice storm. These donations will be directed to the Michigan Maple Syrup Association, at which time the association will then divvy up the donations between producers who have been affected by the storm.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.