Farmers clean up, give thanks after wind and wildfires

Issue Date: November 14, 2007

By Kate Campbell
Assistant Editor

The wind and wildfires that raced through San Diego County last month caused more than $42.6 million in crop damage alone, according to the latest estimates from the county agricultural commissioner's office. This figure, however, does not include losses to irrigation systems, supplies, farm equipment or farm structures destroyed or damaged during the wildfires and windstorms that drove the disaster.

San Diego County Farm Bureau Executive Director Eric Larson said in his update on disaster recovery efforts in his county that beyond the $42 million in crop losses, there was extensive damage to farm infrastructure and homes not reflected in agricultural damage reports.

"I've been in the field and I've walked on farms that have been hurt," Larson said. "Damage goes way beyond the dollar loss. We're talking about real people and real stories.

"Even if $42 million doesn't sound like a lot of money in the context of the larger farm economy, for the people who suffered losses, those losses are immense," he said. "I've seen farms where people lost 100 percent of everything they had. For them it's catastrophic."

He said the first thing farmers have done is work to restore irrigation systems and fences, as well as replace feed.

"Even if plants and animals survived the wind and fire, there's no chance of recovery if they don't get water," Larson said. "For nursery growers, there also has been a major loss of equipment, including tractors, trucks and support buildings. That creates some additional burdens in recovery because rolling stock is gone."

In Riverside County, an updated crop damage estimate shows nearly $15 million in losses, mostly from the windstorms. Affected crops there include vegetable crops, nursery products, avocados and lost production of milk and eggs.

The Riverside County agricultural commissioner's office attributes $1.3 million of losses to wildfire, which is included in the figure of $14.98 million in crop losses.

"What we're reporting for Riverside County is crop damage," said Bill Osterlein, the county's deputy agricultural commissioner. "Most of what our dairies sustained is structural damage. About 80 percent of the dairies in the Hemet, Winchester and San Jacinto areas sustained some damage--from minor to significant."

San Jacinto dairy producer Brad Scott said, "Dairies in our area sustained major damage and loss due to the windstorms. I know of one dairy that had over a dozen cows killed because of flying sheet metal.

"Many dairies had no power for 24 hours and then some. I had many problems on my family dairy farm--everything from buildings damaged, loss of crops, damaged irrigation lines, loss of power and I could go on."

Osterlein said some Riverside County dairies were without power for a day and a half, "but what's hard to calculate right now is the stress to the cows. We know there will be some reduction in milk output. Since all milking is mechanized and uses electricity, when power is out you need to use backup generators. Some of those generators didn't work."

He said the lost milk production numbers are preliminary and included in the $15 million total.

In San Diego County, nearly 8,700 acres of agricultural land were damaged in the fire, including almost 6,200 acres of rangeland.

In the hard-hit Ramona area, there are a number of large horse breeding and training operations. San Diego County has the nation's sixth-largest equine population and many hundreds were evacuated during the wind and firestorms.

"The fire started with a downed power line about 3 miles from us," said Dixie North, who owns North Arabians in Ramona with her husband, Robert. "We had 45-mile-per-hour winds coming straight at our farm all morning (Oct. 21).

"We did not know about the fire until about 1:30 p.m. when we saw some smoke," she said. "We wet down all stalls, all 55 of them, and took all blankets off our horses. We took them out of the barns and put them into our irrigated pastures."

North Arabians includes training and breeding services. They own the stallion Padrons Psyche, whose sire was sold through syndication for $11 million, the highest price ever paid for an Arabian stallion at the time of the sale in the 1980s.

"Only because we have grass pastures did the fire jump that entire area," North said. "It burned all the fences on Sutherland Dam Road. It burned some of our fences and our entire hay barn with a year's supply of feed in it. Then the fire raced up the hill and burned our house to the ground.

"But, by the grace of God, we were spared the pain of losing a single horse," North said.

Ventura County reports a preliminary loss estimate due to windstorms of $10 million to $15 million, primarily lost avocados that were blown from trees. The county agricultural commissioner says the true extent of losses won't be known for awhile, in part because wind scarring to lemons can't be factored in until farmers learn how much of their crops will be downgraded at harvest.

The California Avocado Commission continues to estimate a 10-percent loss in avocado production in the current crop year, which it values at about $35 million. That figure includes losses due both to wind and fire.

The crop loss estimate, however, does not include losses or damage to avocado trees, which could affect California avocado production for several years to come. Despite the losses to the current crop, the avocado commission says it expects overall supplies of California avocados to remain near average levels achieved in recent years.

A House and Senate Conference Committee last week approved $500 million for emergency fire suppression, risk reduction and recovery needs because of this year's catastrophic fire season.

"This funding is a major infusion of federal dollars to help Southern California," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who led the effort to secure the emergency funding with U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. "It will help the Southland recover from devastating wildfires that burned more than 500,000 acres, killed eight, injured more than 100 and destroyed more than 2,000 homes."

The $500 million approved by the conference committee would include:

• $215 million to repay program funds borrowed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Interior Department.
• $150 million to the U.S. Forest Service and the Interior Department to fight wildfires.
• $90 million to reduce hazardous fuels, including dead, dying and downed trees that feed major wildfires, including $30 million for grants to clear hazardous fuels from state and private lands.

To protect homes and businesses and extinguish the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the past few weeks, firefighters used billions of gallons of water. Many have wondered if the state's already short water supplies were being dangerously drawn down.

Local water officials told the media they were able to meet the demand for water to fight the fires and the amount used won't have a long-term effect on supplies.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said more than 500 emergency insurance adjusters have been registered with the state Department of Insurance to expedite the processing of insurance claims for victims in Southern California's fire-ravaged communities.

Just after the fires broke out, anticipating the urgent need for more assistance than insurance companies in California could provide on their own, Poizner declared an insurance emergency. Through this declaration, the commissioner authorized out-of-state adjusters to come to California and assist victims in processing their claims so they can get paid as quickly as possible.

To help expedite the removal of fire-related debris from the more than 1,000 homes destroyed in the fire in San Diego County, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Office of Emergency Services will advance $5 million in state funds to accelerate debris removal.

Because farmers and ranchers usually live where they work, recovery services and state and federal funding are more complex for them. Up-to-date contact and program information for San Diego County farmers and ranchers are available online at www.sdfarmbureau.org. Updates on disaster damage statewide, as well as recovery resources, are available at www.cfbf.com.

(Kate Campbell is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top