As some of the worst flooding since Hurricane Irene battered parts of Franklin County Monday, area farms spent Tuesday morning assessing the damage left by the deluge.

Inches of rain fell across Western Massachusetts from Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, crushing some local farms as rivers and brooks rose over their banks and causing severe damage. Conway received the brunt of the storm, with 4.58 inches of rain falling on the town as of 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Ashfield received 4.12 inches, Buckland got 3.89 inches and Colrain experienced 3.68 inches, while the rest of Franklin County saw more than an inch and a half of rain.

Natural Roots, a horse-powered, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm on Shelburne Falls Road in Conway, experienced some of the worst damage in the county as the South River ran over its banks and washed at least four feet of water over the many vegetables and other crops planted there. David Fisher, who has owned the farm for 26 years, and his partner Maggie Toran, said the flooding was the worst they’ve seen since Hurricane Irene

“It’s a mess here … it just came so fast,” Fisher said as volunteers continued to cross the footbridge to the farm to help clean up debris. “It’s every bit as bad as Hurricane Irene.”

Fisher said they had a crew out at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning to try and manage the rain as it came down. After taking a brief break, though, they went back outside to find the field underwater and deployed staff and their horses to rescue the irrigation pump and chickens. Their mobile chicken coop, however, was parked in the field and the river swept away a “couple dozen chickens” as Fisher and his crew frantically worked.

As he looked over the flattened crops, Fisher said they may be able to salvage a portion of their more robust vegetables, but only if they’re uncontaminated from the river. He said a Massachusetts Department of Agriculture (MDAR) representative will be visiting the farm on Wednesday to help determine their next steps.

If the plants are considered contaminated, Fisher and Toran will lose the vast majority of 2023’s crops – they have two smaller fields separate from the primary one – and 230 families that participate in the CSA will be unable to collect their produce.

“We are trying to save plants that we think might be able to produce food,” Fisher said. “If there’s not any contamination, there’s a lot of food here.”

While he described the flood as a “little bit of a tragedy,” Fisher and Toran said the community mobilized immediately to help. Within a few hours of posting a call for volunteers on their website, two dozen people arrived Tuesday morning and several more showed up for an afternoon shift.

Representatives from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Association (MEMA) and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) also arrived Tuesday to talk to the farm, as well as state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield.

Toran said the support has been “heart lifting” coming in the form of volunteer work, meals brought to the farm and the offer of machinery to move silt and other material deposited by the river.

“We need the community support, generally speaking, to support a small farm in this economic climate,” Fisher added. “In moments like this, the community presents their support and dedication.”

Folks are encouraged to visit the farm’s Facebook page at facebook.com/naturalrootsfarm to see when volunteers are needed. Toran said they expect to launch a GoFundMe within the next day or so, with a goal of $130,000 to pay for lost crops, employee wages and additional work to mitigate future damage. When launched, the GoFundMe can also be found on the farm’s Facebook page.

Other farms hit, but spared the worst

Up the road in Ashfield, Foxtrot Herb Farm Manager Abby Ferla said they were able to escape the worst of the damage due to their location. However, they did experience some soil erosion.

“We’re lucky in this instance to grow on the top of a hill,” Ferla said. “We had a little bit of crop damage and erosion, but nothing as catastrophic as some of our neighbors.”

Foxtrot Farm grows botanical herbs and elderberries, which the farm planted after receiving a 2021 grant due to their resistance to heavy rain. While those berries will help with climate-resilience, Ferla said the amount of rain seen this summer has been unprecedented in her six years in Ashfield.

“We’ve had really wet seasons before, but the amount of damage and erosion in our fields is definitely the most we’ve seen,” Ferla said.

With rain, the early spring frost and the Canadian wildfire smoke, Ferla said it’s been a tough year for farmers.

“Between the rain and the smoke this season, it’s been a challenge,” she said. “I think growers are just getting hammered.”

In Shelburne, Apex Orchards Owner Tim Smith said they avoided crop damage, but all of the water running through has made it difficult to access the orchard.

“We’ve had more than a foot of rain since the first of July,” Smith said. “It’s impacting our work and everything else—hopefully we’ll get through it.”

“The old farmers have a saying,” he said. “A dry summer will scare you to death, a wet summer will starve you to death.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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