Cherry tree branches at Seaquist Orchards in Door County are weighed down by ice from winter storms March 31, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
DOOR COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Winter storms left stunning winter wonderland scenes in the northern end of Door County. But, as the saying goes, looks can be deceiving.
Door County cherry trees are used to a little bit of ice, but this weekend’s storm would not let up.
Jim Seaquist, owner of Seaquist Orchards said, “I’ve never seen this amount of ice. This is the worst we’ve ever seen.”
He watched the forecast closely over the weekend, as predictions for ice always raise concerns for his cherry trees.
According to Seaquist, “Most times you get a little bit of ice and it either gets warmer or colder it turns to rain or it turns to snow, but this last couple of days, it stayed. Even though it was below freezing it stayed rain and it was heavy rain and then it continued to build.”
The relentless rain leaving acre after acre of his trees covered with ice. “This is a crazy amount of ice. There’s areas that are definitely an inch around of ice,” added Seaquist.
Lautenbach’s Orchard, a little further south, on the peninsula is dealing with a similar situation.
“We got some crazy weather. It’s been a crazy spring. Just had a lot of rain and must have been the right temperature and it froze right away and freezing rain and just kind of covered all the trees. Didn’t seem like the roads were too bad, it just hung on all the trees,” said owner Chris Lautenbach.
The coating of ice on every branch of every tree in every orchard is as close as you can get to a disaster, for these orchards.
While the ice isn’t harming the cherry buds that still remain dormant this time of year, the weight of the ice is a problem. Trees are not only sag, but it’s also causing limbs and branches to break.
Lautenbach said, “We did lose some limbs, probably I don’t know, a couple of dozen of limbs a few trees, some of the older trees.”
“These trees are probably going to be a little bit bent, deformed from being with this much weight on them for this long,” added Seaquist.
Just like Mother Nature covered the trees branches, she needs to clear them too. Both orchards hoping for a warmup and lots of sunshine to melt the ice away.
“I don’t really care how it melts off. It can come slow or fast it just needs to melt,” said Seaquist.
To prevent any further damage to the trees.
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