BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – As farmers across Vermont contend with a second massive flood and the devastation that came with it, they’re left to wonder about the future of farming in a flood-prone state.
Last year, Vermont farms lost more than $16 million to flood damage. Some question whether it’s time to shift to higher ground, but farmers say it’s not that simple.
Years ago, Jake Mendell weeded every clover he spotted on his Starksboro farm. But today, he buys clover seed packets and plants them himself.
“Now I look at bare soil and it makes me feel uneasy,” said Jake Mendell of Footprint Farm.
Mendell had already maintained cover crops for years, with rows planted purely to soak up water and secure soil. But after last summer’s flood, he started planting clover and other plants in the walkways between rows of cash crops.
He even leaves some weeds to grow around crops strong enough to share the space.
“There’s these roots that are holding everything kind of in place when we get those big rains and those heavy rains that really like to splash dirt around,” he said.
Without these precautions, Mendell wonders if his crops would have weathered this summer’s round of flooding.
“When we get a big rain, sure there’s some sand and silt that will kind of resettle, but the actual meat of our soil seems like it’s mostly stayed in place,” said Mendell.
UVM Agronomist Heather Darby says as flooding events become more frequent, many farmers are considering solutions like these.
“People are pausing. You know, this two years in a row is quite alarming,” said Darby.
Despite escalating challenges, Darby says farmers are still more likely to troubleshoot than abandon ship. In fact, farmland availability and costs can make uprooting nearly impossible. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an acre of farmland in Vermont sold for $4,600 last year, a 9.5% increase from 2022.
“Economics, availability, infrastructure, you know, all these things that farms require and have invested in, they can’t just get up and walk away from that,” said Darby.
That leaves farmers with a range of flood mitigation strategies, from cover crops to culverts to planting trees near waterways. But even on higher ground, like at Footprint Farm, there’s no magic answer.
“I feel like we were still like working toward finding that sweet spot and we probably will always be sort of searching for it,” said Mendell.
Darby believes the solution needs to come from the top down.
“This a community and statewide conversation, not just each individual person, although we each have our own things that we can do to protect ourselves and adapt,” said Darby.