Joaquin Lopez didn’t sleep last Wednesday night.
He remembers being awakened by his dogs barking in 2021 when waters rose at Mariposa Farm near Everson, which Lopez runs with his wife. This time, it was dark out when Lopez saw water start to collect in his backyard.
Soon, water was rushing into the barn that held tools, equipment and produce with such force that it left at least one thin crack in the concrete floor. Among the losses: about $35,000 to $40,000 worth of produce such as radishes and squash, representing hours of work harvesting and cleaning. The couple doesn’t have an estimate yet for the cost of other damage.
“I can’t imagine right now how expensive (it’s) going to be,” said Lopez’s wife, Lis. “It’s really sad and frustrating.’”
So far, the impact of this month’s flood on farms in the region has been mixed, with some faring better than in 2021, said Fred Likkel, executive director of Whatcom Family Farmers. Likkel said he had been informed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture that there have been no reported livestock mortalities in Whatcom County, with a few beef cattle lost in Skagit.
Overall, “folks were a little bit more prepared,” he said. “I guess the memory of four years ago was still fresh in their minds.”
Some farmers have been unlucky
But some farmers, like the Lopez family, have been unlucky.
In Skagit County, Jordan Baumgardner’s family has marked and dated the water line with a Sharpie on a wall at their dairy farm for every flood on the property. In 2021, the water was “unbelievably deep.”
“We thought there’s no possible way it could get deeper,” Baumgardner said. “But we were wrong.”
In the past week, water rose about a foot higher on Baumgardner’s property than the previous flood. Though the family didn’t lose any of their roughly 600 cows this year, they’re looking at “immense” damage to infrastructure on the farm.
At Mariposa, the flood cut off the Lopez family home, whose basement was “like a big pool,” from power and water. When that much water comes, Lopez said, there’s not much that can be done to avoid damage. Though he was able to move his vehicles to higher ground, “it was water coming really, really, really fast.”
A family friend has set up an online fundraiser for Mariposa Farm.
The farm was also badly damaged by the 2021 floods, a disaster Lopez said Mariposa had “just barely recovered from.” Though the couple looked into flood insurance afterward, they didn’t end up taking out a policy. One company’s quote included a $6,000 deductible, which didn’t seem worth it at the time.
By Wednesday, Dec. 17 the couple had been working around 14 hours a day cleaning up since the flood, with help from volunteers. Lis said she and her husband are a support system for each other.
Flood waters also came up to Wanderwood Farm near Everson, though the farm saw less severe damage than Mariposa. The field, barns and some greenhouses were flooded when Colin Fischer, who owns the farm with his partner, spoke with Cascadia Daily News on Thursday, Dec. 11. The couple “did a lot of preparation” for the flood, assuming it would be as bad as 2021. They were able to get machinery, vehicles, expensive tools and electronics up high.
In Sumas, the flood closed down the only major feed mill in the area, EPL Feed, for several days. At least 6 feet of water collected in the mill, according to Whatcom County. EPL Feed did not respond to a message CDN left with an employee on its customer service line.
The mill was also closed for some days after the 2021 floods and dealt with longer term infrastructure problems, such as damage to the railroad, Likkel said. He was in touch with the CEO, and said it was back up and running on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
“That’s the thing that provides a lot of the grain that the animals need, that high energy stuff, especially for a working dairy cow,” he said. “So when that goes down for a while, that also creates some stress for folks, too.”
Alan Schreiber, executive director of the Washington Blueberry Commission, said on Tuesday that it was “too soon to draw a conclusion” about how the region’s numerous berry farmers weathered the flood. So far it was “not worse than 2021,” he said.
About 1,000 acres of blueberries were sitting in water, he said, making them the most impacted among the berry varieties in the region. But “blueberries evolved as a bog plant” and can generally “withstand wet feet.”
Root rot is a danger for raspberries if their environment gets too wet, but only about 100 acres are “potentially in trouble,” Schreiber said Tuesday. Another factor is water currents going through fields, washing away plants and other materials, which Schreiber heard happened to a few blueberry farms this month.
“I have a feeling that most of the berry plants will come through this relatively unscathed,” he said, though he noted that the forecasted rain this week meant there was still uncertainty.
Farmland in Sterling area unprotected
Jason Vander Kooy, a Skagit County farmer and dike district commissioner, said downriver on the Skagit much of the farming community didn’t end up seeing too much impact. Farmland in the Sterling area and around Nookachamps Creek, however, is unprotected by dikes and saw a significant amount of flooding, he said.
That applied to the Baumgardners, not far from the creek. In 2021, flooding killed 44 of the farm’s cows, an emotionally devastating loss.
Early last week, Baumgardner and his siblings were “nonstop all day” refreshing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast for the nearby river gauges. Those estimates are “pretty good,” Baumgardner said, but “sometimes their prediction is completely wrong.” So they waited and watched.
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, it seemed clear: the flood was happening. The family moved feed up to high ground where they planned to keep the cows. Then a neighbor, whose nearby dairy farm went out of business and is sitting empty, dropped by and suggested they move cows to his property.
The logistics of moving so many cows in such a short amount of time — around seven hours — seemed overwhelming. But with help from a handful of guys either they or the neighbor knew, the family got to work loading the animals into trailers.
In the end, they hauled all 300 of the farm’s milk cows out over the course of just under four hours. Those that didn’t need to be milked stayed on high ground at the property.
Cows are sensitive, and moving them is no easy feat. It takes them about a week to get over a one-day “insult,” or disruption, Baumgardner said. His animals, all born and raised on the farm, had never been in a trailer before.
It was “grueling,” he said. “It was raining so unbelievably hard, it was almost hard to take a breath.”
All the cows survived — “truly a blessing,” Baumgardner said. But the infrastructure damage and feed loss was “way worse” than in 2021.
He estimated on Tuesday the farm was looking at around $200,000 in losses. The farm likely won’t get any kind of reimbursement. It’s in the floodplain, so flood insurance was “prohibitively expensive.”
Baumgardner’s family has been farming in Skagit Valley for 50 years, and at their current location for more than 30. They’ve been through many floods. But this year’s flood, and the one in 2021, were “so much deeper” than those in the past.
“We’re questioning whether or not farming here will remain viable,” Baumgardner said, “if that’s gonna be the case.”
Sophia Gates covers rural Whatcom and Skagit counties. She is a Washington State Murrow Fellow whose work is underwritten by taxpayers and available outside CDN’s paywall. Reach her at [email protected]; 360-922-3090 ext. 131.
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