• In March 2025, a crippling ice storm destroyed tens of millions of trees, cutting about a third of the state’s maple syrup production 
• This month, another devastating storm hit northern Michigan, but most maple syrup producers were spared this time
• One maple syrup producer lost $300,000 from last year’s storm but is back to tapping trees

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GAYLORD — Jennifer RiChard picked her way through a web of bright blue plastic tubes in the woods one cold, snowy morning in late March. 

Each tube ran from a tree, carrying sap to a nearby barn to be boiled down to maple syrup. 

Today, though, the trees weren’t giving up their sap quite yet.

“They all have ice in them,” said RiChard, inspecting a plastic tap she had wedged out of a tree trunk.

Maple season is in full swing here at Hidden Acres Sugar Bush in Gaylord, a business run by RiChard and her husband. But it wasn’t so long ago that none of this seemed possible.

It’s been a full year since the ice storm that devastated tens of millions of trees across northern Michigan, including many sugar maples. The RiChards were among those hit especially hard.

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In April 2025, RiChard estimated the storm would cost her roughly $400,000 between ruined maple lines and lost future revenue.

She wasn’t alone. The Michigan Maple Syrup Association said around a third of the state’s annual maple syrup output was lost to storm damage last year.

After finishing taxes this spring, RiChard said the final damage was closer to $300,000, only a third of which was covered by insurance. 

So when RiChard saw another ice storm in the forecast two weeks ago — a storm coming almost exactly one year later — it was traumatic. She couldn’t stop checking the weather.

“It was so scary to think that something like that, that was considered a once-in-a-lifetime ice storm, was going to hit us back to back,” RiChard said. “Had we ever once thought that this … could happen again, we wouldn’t have struggled for the year working sun up to sun down every day to get it done. We would have just said, ‘This isn’t the right region for this type of job, for this type of business.’”

‘It’s a little emotional’

This time, Hidden Acres Sugar Bush made it through the storm just fine. The Michigan Maple Syrup Association confirmed that, while a few producers in the Alpena area were hit by the recent storm, the damage wasn’t as widespread. The association said no sugar bushes experienced severe damage in both 2025 and 2026.

Last year, RiChard applied for emergency reimbursement through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program available to farmers and forestland owners but, like many others, she hasn’t heard back. 

Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved aid for ice storm recovery, reversing a previous decision. FEMA will provide money for local governments and nonprofits impacted by the storm and for repairing public utilities, like water, sewer and power systems, but not for individuals.

Mainly because of help from family, neighbors and emergency relief volunteers, RiChard’s maple lines are back up and running this season. 

But everywhere she looks, she sees the damage left behind after last year’s storm.

“If you look up, you’ll see how many (tree) tops and branches are missing. Our canopy is really thin. But coming out here now and looking at it, it’s a little emotional,” she said. “So much went into it, and it looks great. Everything’s up, everything’s parallel, everything’s where it’s supposed to be, and that’s amazing.”

That recovery didn’t come easily. The RiChards spent months in their woods with tractors, chainsaws and woodchippers.

“It was a massive wear and tear on ourselves, on our human (bodies), being out here doing all that physical work constantly,” she said.

‘Better than none’

Before the 2025 ice storm, RiChard’s sugar bush had 17,000 tappable maple trees. But 4,000 of those will never be tapped again because they sustained too much damage. 

And the sugar content of the remaining trees has dropped dramatically.

“The sugar is now going to do the repairs,” said RiChard.

Before the storm, RiChard said her trees averaged around 2% sugar content, meaning it took around 65 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

“We’ve lost at least 1% of our sugar content,” she said. 

It now takes her double the amount of sap to make one gallon of syrup. That change is only a temporary one, but it’s uncertain how long the trees will take to recover.

“We are going to definitely fall significantly short of our averages for the season,” she said. “But that’s OK. It’ll be a season. It’s better than none.”

Some other maple producers in northern Michigan are unable to tap this year because of tree damage or lines that haven’t been replaced.

Back in the woods, RiChard snowshoed a little farther, continuing to check taps until she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh, look, it’s moving,” she said, pointing to a blue maple line. “Watch those bubbles.”

A small trickle showed the first little bit of sap started moving through the tube — sap that, tomorrow, would be boiled down into the next barrel of maple syrup.

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.

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