Wellsburg-based farmer Eric Freeland’s pumpkin fields have dried up due to the ongoing drought conditions locally, which National Weather Service forecasters expect to persist into early September. (Photo Provided)
WHEELING — Local growers will receive no reprieve in trying to salvage their fall harvests, as the National Weather Service said Monday that severe drought conditions in the Ohio Valley are predicted to last until early September.
The combination of low precipitation predicted in the area this week and temperatures expected to hit the mid-90s on Tuesday and Wednesday will prolong drought conditions in the area heading into the fall.
The predicted high temperature for Tuesday is 95 degrees. Wednesday’s predicted high temperature will reach 96 degrees. NWS Pittsburgh Lead Meteorologist David Shallenberger noted Wednesday’s temperatures would get “close” to heat advisory criteria.
Shallenberger said “some precipitation” was expected over the next few days, adding there was a good chance the area could receive between a quarter and a half an inch of precipitation on Wednesday.
With light rainfall predicted for the weekend, Shallenberger said the precipitation may mitigate the drought but not end drought conditions.
Ohio Valley residents will see the impacts of the drought in low river flows and vegetation suffering due to a lack of water. Shallenberger added that while the Ohio Valley has not reached the high fire risk distinction that occurs at the highest drought levels, if drought conditions continue, Ohio County will reach a high fire risk level.
“If there’s dry grass in an area, that can help spread fire quickly,” Shallenberger noted. “For any fire to be sustained for a long time, you need other fuels for fire to become more dry, like trees, for any real concern. We haven’t gotten to that level yet.”
According to Shallenberger, relief may be on the horizon in September, as an “above-normal chance of rainfall” is predicted in the area. The expected rainfall may “help mitigate some of the drought conditions.”
“The climatological outlooks do have us above normal precipitation as we head into the end of the month and the beginning of September,” Shallenberger noted. “There is a possibility that we may have enough to break out of (drought conditions) as we head into the end of the month and the beginning of September.”
The predicted relief may be too little, too late, for Wellsburg-based farmer Eric Freeland, who said the drought has reached “catastrophic levels” on his farm.
Freeland is “irrigating crops almost 24/7” to keep the ground damp enough to harvest crops such as strawberries, tomatoes and green beans. Because of the dry weather, the farm lost 80% of its green bean crop and had a potato harvest of “about 50 to 60% less than anticipated.”
“We have collected less tonnage of crops than we probably normally would have,” Freeland said. “The potatoes were a lot smaller, too, and that was the same for all the other crops. There’s just less because you can’t replace that natural rainfall we need even with irrigation.”
While some crops have survived the drought conditions, Freeland noted others were “not going to make it.” He said there was “no moisture” in the ground for the sweet corn crops to “make it,” and the pumpkins were “in dire straits.”
“The soil reminds me of baby powder,” Freeland said. “I had a small field where I wanted to till under where some potatoes were and then replant some sunflowers. Even though I was going as slow as I could with the tiller, a cloud of dust completely covered the tractor to the point where you couldn’t even see the color of the tractor.”
Due to “Dust Bowl-like” soil conditions, Freeland said the farm was “not doing any kind of groundwork.” Employees now spend most of their workday moving water lines to irrigate crops.
Moving into the fall with dry conditions and high temperatures, Freeland predicted the agritourism-centered activities at the farm, such as the corn maze and pumpkin patch, would not be as extravagant as in years past.
“I’m looking at the corn maze that ought to be three or four feet tall, and it’s barely a foot tall,” Freeland said. “We had some people come out the other night to take photos of the flowers at the farm, and I had to give them the heads up that it’s pretty bleak and dismal looking here.”
Drought conditions will also impact the farm heading into the winter. Freeland said “several fields” were seeded for covered winter crops that had not germinated due to a lack of water.
“The ground is laying there bare,” Freeland said. “There could be some soil erosion as well, which might have an impact come wintertime because there won’t be an adequate soil covering to hold the winter rains.”
Local beekeeper and Blended Homestead co-owner Eric Blend has also had to undergo substantial efforts to combat the impact of drought conditions on his honeybees. He has been feeding sugar water to his bees to offset the decreased nectar flow from plants, estimating he has used close to 600 pounds of sugar during the drought.
“We’re probably not going to be able to harvest much honey in the fall, if any at all,” Blend added.
Another consequence of the drought for Blend is an increase in the number of yellow jackets on his farm, which are a direct predator of honeybees. Blend suspects the increased presence of the pest is due to yellow jackets being ground-boring insects that have not been flooded out of their nests by substantial rainfall.
“Even a decent rain is going to flood yellow jackets out of those nests in the ground,” Blend noted. “Plus, just by plants growing so quickly in normal conditions, sometimes vegetation grows around their nests so quickly the yellow jackets can’t get out of their hive very well.”
Blend has also seen an increased presence of deer on his farm during the drought. He noted that deer typically eat new growths in gardens, such as clovers, which are less abundant during the drought, causing them to seek out other vegetation in his garden.
“Even with the electric fence around my garden, the ground is so dry that deer aren’t even getting shocked because there is no current to pass through in the dry ground,” Blend added. “An old-time farmer told me that I had to water the grass underneath my electric fence, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, you can’t catch a break with anything during this drought.’”
In addition to the drought affecting his livestock, the hot temperatures have negatively impacted another animal on Blend’s farm — the chickens. He noted that the stress of the high temperatures on the poultry’s bodies may cause them to stop laying eggs. His chickens’ egg production has dropped to “about 20% of what it should be.”
The drought has also decreased the yields of Blend’s produce to “50% of what they should be.”
Blend noted he had “offset” some of the costs of increasing his garden’s irrigation through the cost-share irrigation provided by the Natural Resource Conservation Service. He encouraged other local growers to take advantage of the program.
Freeland said he was considering applying for the state’s Emergency Drought Relief Reimbursement Grant Program. He wanted to see what was involved in the application process and what the farm’s losses would be.
“The program is designed to help people like me and other farmers who make a living solely farming,” Freeland said. “If you have a substantial loss to the point of catastrophe, the government does make some provisions that help soften that blow a little bit.”