BLACKSBURG, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia is for lovers of things made in Virginia, but farmers in six southwestern counties will feel long-term effects from Helene, which roared through the region with a fury.
The storm has crippled a way of life for farmers who produce apples and blueberries, raise cattle for consumption and grow hardwood trees — including Christmas trees.
Virginia Tech researchers are counting the economic damage.
“So the biggest losses in terms of agricultural products is actually timber,” said Dr. John Bovay, an assistant professor in food and agricultural policy at Virginia Tech. “So the Virginia Department of Forestry helped us to estimate the damages to timber in southwest Virginia, and they put the total at just over $38 million in timber losses.
“They’re experiencing really devastating losses in terms of their expectations about how they’re going to be able to make money in future years. There’s very little hope that the timber will be recoverable or salvaged because there just aren’t enough contractors available to help take the logs out of the woods and do all the work that’s necessary. And then in terms of crops, I believe pumpkins [and] beef cattle are some of the industries that were affected the most in terms of thinking about more more traditional agricultural crops besides timber.”
Bovay said some farmers cannot right the wrongs caused by the costly storm.
“It’s in the millions of dollars, and that’s just looking at this year’s impacts,” Bovay said. “When we think about the implications for future years, it reaches tens of millions of dollars, probably because of agricultural land that will no longer be usable because of flooding, and either erosion or other weather conditions that are going to make it very hard for farmers to return the land to production, such as dumping of sand from the river onto its fields.”
The September storm wiped out $300,000 worth of 2024 Christmas trees. The beautiful trees in your home represent eight years of growth.
“We really have to think about that being a damage that these farmers are going to suffer for the next seven years because those trees were lost and they’re not going to be replanted,” Bovay said.
It is estimated Helene’s hit will cost southwest Virginia up to $630 billion. Bovay said Virginia farmers may need a financial lifeline from state and congressional lawmakers.