News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz Michigan state senators and Northeast Michigan maple syrup producers are seen at the Devereaux Memorial Library in Grayling participating in a round table discussion on Friday about the challenges maple syrup producers are facing after the recent ice storm.

GRAYLING — Maple syrup producers in Northeast Michigan are still struggling after the recent ice storm that left thousands without power and decimated acres of forestland. Many are hopeful that the Farm Service Agency (FSA) can provide grant money for recovery, though the process has been slow, and there are many factors to consider.

On Friday, multiple Northeast Michigan maple syrup producers, including the Michigan Maple Syrup Association president, David Noonan, met with Michigan State Senators John Cherry (27th District) and John Damoose (37th District) in Grayling to articulate what producers need to get back up and running.

Tim Boring, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), was also in attendance to understand the full breadth of issues that maple syrup producers are facing.

A common challenge that producers expressed is waiting on the FSA to begin evaluations of damage so that producers may be awarded grant money to begin recovering their maple tree stands and maple syrup-producing equipment.

Troy and Jennifer Richard, from Gaylord, explained that the FSA has not been able to begin assessments of their sugarbush because the program is being rebuilt.

“They have to rebuild it from scratch,” Jennifer Richard said. “It’s not built for this type of monumental destruction, but what they’re saying (is)… ‘Do not touch your woods…don’t move trails unless there’s a matter of life or loss of property…do not go in.’ Well, I don’t wanna skip around here, but we have to save our trees.”

Further, Jennifer Richard explained that she and her husband must begin pulling taps and closing those holes to ensure that trees remain healthy and continue to produce sap in the future.

“If we can’t go into our woods and do anything, then we’re going to have a bigger loss than what we already have,” Jennifer Richard said.

Ivan Witt, a forester and maple syrup producer in Gaylord, described why it is important for producers to get into their woods quickly to retrieve their maple syrup tubing.

“We need to get the lines up so they drain before the warmer weather sets in, so they don’t get all funky,” Witt said. “With that sweet sugar, water in those tubes…it’ll all get real nasty…it’s just a boat load of work and we gotta get at it.”

Witt also explained that if producers reuse tubing next year that has sat too long in the warm weather, bacteria in the tubing potentially could contaminate the maple trees.

Dale Sumerix, a maple syrup producer in Lachine, was also concerned about his tubing and worried that if he had to replace it all, his retirement income would not suffice.

“It’s a mess…the big thing is getting in there, taking care of the tubing…getting the tubing back up, salvaging what we can,” Sumerix said. “If we leave it sit much longer… we’re going to end up replacing it all. We can’t afford to do that on a retirement income.”

The consensus among producers was that there is a lot of money currently invested in the maple syrup industry in Northeast Michigan and a lot more money at risk of being lost. However, providing a total estimate is a bit more complicated than just adding up damaged trees.

Dale Forrester, a maple syrup producer based in Atlanta, experienced a lot of damage to his maple tree stands and said that estimating the costs of damage has to be done on a case-by-case basis.

“Any individual is a bit different,” Forrester said.

Forrester explained that the variability of farming is intrinsic to the industry, just like any other business.

“Some guys…they put money into the stock market and some guys put money in corn and beans and hogs…we all gamble like it or not,” Forrester said. “You gambled on your job…we, as syrup producers, we gambled on the land in Michigan to make us money…That’s really a sad part about it…we got a bad hand.”

Looking to the future and for the solutions, many of the producers and state officials were at a loss as to what recovery will actually look like.

David Noonan, president of the Michigan Maple Syrup Association, explained that though many maple syrup producers have been able to get back up and running, there is still a lot of work to be done to prepare for future costs and ramifications.

“But it is more like a band-aid because (there’s) a lot of work to be done, not just now, but in the near future,” Noonan said. “Nobody knows what the trees are going to be like in two years, and everybody knows there’s a lot of infrastructure that’s going to have to be replaced, and so there’s a lot of time, a lot of money involved.”

Sen. Damoose explained that both state democrats and republicans are willing to work together to get people the money they need to recover. However, Damoose stressed the importance of being effective, not fast, and not holding out for federal aid.

“(Federal aid) is up in the air and we cannot hold our breath on that,” Damoose said. “There have been a lot of disasters around the country that have just been turned down…there’s no guarantee, but I do know that there’s a lot of people who are really willing to work on this…”

Additionally, Damoose noted the uniqueness of the recent ice storm and how that may make getting funding more difficult.

“A lot of the type of funding we’re gonna need isn’t necessarily the type of funding that is normally covered by disaster funding…we have to be real careful,” Damoose said. “One of the big problems we’re gonna have is homeowners who can’t afford to remove the trees that need to be removed now. They’re gonna die and they’re going to be dangerous and a safety issue…typically that’s not something that goes through a disaster fund.”

Damoose explained that the Michigan House of Representatives has put together a supplementary budget for ice storm relief, and though it is a preemptive move on their part, Damoose said there isn’t much that can happen until the federal funding pieces fall into place.

Tim Boring, director of MDARD, said that MDARD is facing the challenge of trying to leverage state resources to meet the needs of the variety of agriculture industries that Michigan is home to, including maple syrup production.

Boring explained that moving forward, it is important that MDARD knows exactly in what ways they can help producers get back on their feet and strengthen the maple syrup industry for years to come.

“We are challenged at times to work on making sure that we’ve got programs that are flexible,” Boring said. “It’s really contingent on not showing up with a list (of issues but) to make sure that we fully understand the issues. Then we’ll go back to Lansing and be creative about how we can leverage the programs, the existing resources, and how we might call in additional state resources.”

Boring also noted the cultural significance of maple syrup production to Michigan’s cultural identity and MDARD’s mission to propagate those industries.

“One of our key overarching goals is to have the work of (agriculture) be seen as more highly valued to the health of communities, the health of people…the livability of Michigan across the state here,” Boring said. “Specifically in a place like Michigan, where we derive so much of our local cultural identity from things like dry beans, or cherries, or maple syrup production…It’s a challenge sometimes, too, because the individual needs of different industries are vastly different.”

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