FRANKLIN, Wv. (WHSV) - After last week’s ice storm many in Pendleton County saw trees and powerlines go down due to the weight of the ice. Owner of Dry Run Spirits Distillery Jeff Munn, recounts waking up and hearing branch after branch break under the accumulated ice. “It’s like you could hear gunshots going off outside of massive tree branches breaking under the ice. Just sounded like somebody shooting a gun.”, he recalled. The downed trees threatened his maple tapping operation as large branches fell onto his lines.

Munn has been operating Dry Run Spirits since 2020, and the sap from each of his maple trees is vital to the operation. He uses the sap, not just for syrup, but also for maple moonshine. So with a storm of this magnitude, Munn’s biggest concern was his lines’ health. Luckily Munn believes his property wasn’t hit quite as hard as others.

Just a half mile up the road, the tree damage was much more intense. “But it right here on my neighbor’s property, it looked like, I’d say, 25% of all the trees were knocked down, and every single one of the trees had some damage in its upper branches, and half of them lost their tops.”, Munn said. Many of the trees that came down fell when winds whipped through the area after the ice had fallen.

Back on Munn’s property, the damage to the maple tapping was minimal. He attributes this to the material that the lines are made of saying, “The vinyl lines that we use to allow the sap to be collected using gravity, lot of elasticity to them, so they’ll take a lot of abuse. And I had one tree come down on the line, punch the line all the way down to the ground, and then the line had to come up another three feet to keep going, and the SAP kept flowing.” Even with the lines pinned, he explained that the suction from the trees at the bottom of the hill is what kept the sap flowing.

With that storm behind him and the next one on deck, Munn says they are going to do what they can to mitigate the ill effects. “We’re better prepared now, because we got our generator out, and we’re ready for it. We hadn’t anticipated losing power like we did. This part of Pendleton County was hammered and miles of power lines went down, and over here on the next row, they lost four power poles that were shattered by trees falling on them.”, he said. He added that he’s confident in the operation he’s built to ride the next storm through.

Looking ahead, Munn has a great feeling about the days ahead. He says he is looking forward to the Mountain State Maple Days on February 15th and March 15th, even with the weather. That will be when all the sugarhouses in West Virginia (including Munn’s) will come together to celebrate and show off all things maple. If you are interested in attending or just want to know more about the annual celebration click here.