Recovery Zone : Yuba County Farmers Face Daunting Task of Healing the Land

Every day for the last month, Nancy Basrai has rolled out of bed at 4:30 a.m. and traipsed into her flood-ravaged orchards here in eastern Yuba County.

There she maneuvers a squat blue Ford orchard tractor between rows of peach trees just starting to bud, pushing debris away from exposed roots and piling it into mounds that dwarf her 4-foot, 11-inch frame. For a time, she and her hired hands pulled away stray limbs, metal pieces and rice straw by hand, until so many long, black snakes slithered from the tangled detritus that the workers insisted on taking refuge aboard machines.

For Basrai, 63, the year 1997 was supposed to begin with a monthlong visit to family and friends in India. But instead, rains gashed three holes in her private levee and swamped 85 acres of fruit and nut trees, spurring a yeoman battle to mop up.

The floods of ’97 are over for now, but scores of farmers like Basrai still face the daunting task of cleaning up and healing the land before the spring growing season takes hold.

Of 38 California counties reporting flood-related losses to agricultural lands, Yuba County topped the list, with a whopping $74 million in estimated farm losses so far. That amount equals half the value of the county’s estimated gross annual agricultural production.

More than many other counties, Yuba depends on agriculture, with farming and related businesses accounting for one in six jobs. Three processing plants heavily damaged by the floods are among the area’s largest private employers.

Southern Californians might wonder why the plight of a few farmers like Basrai, 50 miles north of Sacramento, should matter to them--especially given the view of most agricultural economists that the flood losses, for the most part, are localized and will have a relatively small effect on food prices.

Pete Livingston, a researcher at UC Davis’ department of agricultural and resource economics, offers a reason to care.

The Northern California flood zone, he said, accounts for “a large portion of the cornucopia California.” The area produces more than 70% of the nation’s peaches and nearly all of the prunes, almonds, olives and walnuts.

A bit of lost production in a distant county like Yuba might not seem catastrophic, but if shortages there force growers elsewhere to send more crops north, that eventually could translate into stunted supplies--and higher prices--here.

But there is a much bigger context to consider. Calamitous weather is just one of many pressures facing the nation’s small farmers, a breed that some fear will eventually succumb to urbanization and the growing dominance of corporate farming.

“We’ve got the most productive agricultural land in the world, and if we can’t keep farmers on it we’re going to be in trouble,” Livingston said.

Here on Basrai’s low-lying lands, mending orchards and fields involves removing tons of deposited sand--10 feet deep in places--that nobody needs or wants, filling pond-size craters gouged by raging waters and, in Basrai’s case, plucking grasses and other lint by hand off about 80,000 trees--”to avoid hurting the buds.”

Giant tractors, some of them leased at $85 an hour, crisscross her orchards, scooping up sand, evening out gullies and pushing away 60-foot logs.

So far, the cleanup has cost her $30,000, and Basrai anticipates spending possibly $90,000 more “to get it back where it was.” She is perhaps more bugged by the loss of $4,000 in fertilizer that she had just applied before the nearby Yuba River overflowed.

Basrai grosses about $200,000 a year, little of which is left over, she said, after she pays her bills. To cover the repairs, she will have to remortgage her property.

For Basrai--whose post-flood uniform has been a pair of bright purple pants, sweater, jacket, white knit hat and white boots--this is the third flood since 1951 on her Marysville land. It is the seventh in her career as a farmer.

But despite that, and throughout this latest ordeal, it has never occurred to Basrai to give up. Rather, displaying the optimism of her calling, she urged visitors one recent afternoon to imagine her trees decked with fragrant pink blossoms, as she hopes they will look in March.

“I’d be a coward to run out,” she said. “I’m too proud, and it’s my life.”

In fact, Basrai is so pleased with her speedy progress since the flood that “I can sleep at night.” She envisions a fine crop to sell to her cooperative, Tri-Valley Growers in Modesto, where her cling peaches end up in fancy jars under the S&W; label.

“My mother always said God will help those who help themselves,” Basrai said. “I’ve been out there 10 hours a day. I was the first one to take machinery to Ford to get it cleaned. I was the first woman to get started on the cleanup. I just have a feeling I’ll have a better crop than ever.”

Here in Yuba County, the waters swept over 14,000 acres of farmland. Basrai, at least, has the promise of restoring her trees in time. An orchard next door, meanwhile, has remained untouched because, Basrai said, the farmer fears that another rain could send more water surging through the broken levee.

Along Feather River Boulevard, some fruit and nut orchards are still wallowing in several feet of water, and the trees’ fate is uncertain. At the Danna & Danna packing shed, a brown line of dried mud on the tallest metal buildings attests to the 20-foot peak of the forceful waters, which shredded the outer walls of buildings like so much thin fabric. Inside were dozens of trucks and tractors, a walnut huller and a prune dehydrator, all of which will need massive refurbishing.

Thirteen employee homes were also destroyed; fruit bins tossed about by the waters still rest precariously on the roofs of two houses near the shed.

Down the road, torrents lifted farm workers’ houses off their foundations and sent them crashing down on a pickup and an automobile.

“We estimate the damage at $5 million to $6 million,” said Anthony DeMattei, a member of the family that owns the Danna & Danna operation. “And cleanup is going to take months.”

In a rare case, the flood has driven a farmer away. Martin Poldervaart, 25, who leased his dairy from Danna & Danna, didn’t evacuate in time and had to listen to the distressed cries as 200 of his prized Holsteins drowned. His was the only dairy to be flooded in Yuba County. Poldervaart and his wife, Trina, have relocated to Glenn County, where they plan to build a dairy and operate it for his parents.

But most of Yuba County’s agrarians are staying put.

“A relatively minor percentage of farmers will give up,” said Dennis Pooler, Yuba County’s agricultural commissioner. “The vast majority are committed to farming and will do everything in their power to recover.”

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Flood of Losses

Thirty-eight California counties have reported losses totaling $245 million from January flooding. Here are the top loss estimates to date:

County: Estimated Loss

Yuba: $74,150,100

Stanislaus: $34,139,344

Nevada: $20,012,000

Sacramento: $19,765,035

Sutter: $17,493,880

Plumas/Sierra: $11,960,000

San Joaquin: $11,563,884

Merced: $8,900,500

Tulare: $7,665,600

Madera: $4,979,651

Source: California Department of Food and Agriculture