“It's been a bit of a tough year for Christmas tree growers in southern Vermont, thanks to a summer drought. It's a trend Vermont could see more of with climate change. Jim Horst has been in the Christmas tree business in Bennington for 50 years. And in that time, he's seen things change. "There's no question that there's climate change," he said. Horst leads the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. Winters in New England are warming faster than the globe, on average. But Horst says it's the rising variability in rainfall here that does the most damage — especially to the young trees farmers plant every year. "I lost maybe 20% this year. That's not the end of the world, but it's not what I'd like to see," he said. Horst says mature trees are more resistant to drought, so they should be healthy for the holidays.”
Sounds like they need more reservoirs. I remember several years back in this area some nut tree growers experimented with flooding their orchards when water was overabundant (and therefor free), to take pressure off the canal system. It reduced the amount of irrigation water they needed later in the year, and there was no damage to the trees or the following crop.
^^^ Alan And that reminds me of rice farming (farther north in the Central Valley); experimentation showed that it wasn't necessary to keep the paddies flooded--giving just enough water at just the right times greatly reduced overall water use. Granted that Christmas trees are not rice, but the idea of researching water use is the same. --Alan
✔️ I very much appreciated Stephen Colbert mentioning his amazement that Peru showed us you can actually impeach and remove a president, without first dithering for several years and then still not doing anything.
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----Alan
{listener}
ReplyDeletevia Vermont Public “The Frequency”
“It's been a bit of a tough year for Christmas tree growers in southern Vermont, thanks to a summer drought. It's a trend Vermont could see more of with climate change. Jim Horst has been in the Christmas tree business in Bennington for 50 years. And in that time, he's seen things change. "There's no question that there's climate change," he said. Horst leads the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. Winters in New England are warming faster than the globe, on average. But Horst says it's the rising variability in rainfall here that does the most damage — especially to the young trees farmers plant every year. "I lost maybe 20% this year. That's not the end of the world, but it's not what I'd like to see," he said. Horst says mature trees are more resistant to drought, so they should be healthy for the holidays.”
Sounds like they need more reservoirs. I remember several years back in this area some nut tree growers experimented with flooding their orchards when water was overabundant (and therefor free), to take pressure off the canal system. It reduced the amount of irrigation water they needed later in the year, and there was no damage to the trees or the following crop.
Delete^^^ Alan
DeleteAnd that reminds me of rice farming (farther north in the Central Valley); experimentation showed that it wasn't necessary to keep the paddies flooded--giving just enough water at just the right times greatly reduced overall water use. Granted that Christmas trees are not rice, but the idea of researching water use is the same.
--Alan
It sounds like Christmas tree growers depend on rainfall rather than irrigation. Am I wrong?
Delete
DeleteVermont isn't big on irrigation. It's infrastructure and would be subject to frost heaves, and anyway it's energy dependent.
Well, water doesn't need to be pumped downhill.
Delete✔️ I very much appreciated Stephen Colbert mentioning his amazement that Peru showed us you can actually impeach and remove a president, without first dithering for several years and then still not doing anything.
ReplyDelete