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The Northwest’s snowpack drought: With water cutbacks, farmers risk crop losses
Greetings,
The Northwest’s snowpack drought: With water cutbacks, farmers risk crop losses
Thousands of Yakima basin farmers will be short of water this summer, in a year marked by a stunning lack of snow to feed a river that sustains crops worth more than $2 billion annually.
SUNNYSIDE, Yakima County — Ryan Schilperoort expects to receive less than half of his normal irrigation water from the canal that winds through these desert lands.
But he can’t cut back on his crop acreage. He planted his Concord grape vines years ago, and they must have water through the summer months to survive and produce fruit for juices, jellies and jams.
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So, he’s rationing.
Schilperoort irrigates each plant for shorter amounts of time. And he drives his four-wheeler down farm roads graveled with cherry pits to watchdog the water as it moves through the furrows dug into this sandy soil. He wants a sufficient flow to reach the end of the long green rows, with a slight trickle to spare.
“I’m trying to maximize the use of my water as far as it will go,” Schilperoort said. “You cannot waste any.”
Thousands of Yakima basin farmers will be short of water this summer, in a year marked by a stunning lack of snow to feed a river that sustains crops worth more than $2 billion annually. The prospects for the summer appeared even grimmer in early May but improved modestly after strong rains.
Some, such as Schilperoort, are cautiously optimistic. Through careful water management, they think they can make it to harvest time without stunted crops or long-term damage to vines and orchard trees.
Others already are beginning to tally losses that they expect to mount over the summer.
“This corn is trying to come up but it should be twice as high,” said Andre Curfman, as he walked through a ragged field of stressed plants. “It will recover some but won’t reach its full potential. This is getting ugly fast.”
This year’s problems have not been caused by drought, at least not in the classic sense. Total precipitation was roughly normal this past winter….More Here
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