Hollister
– Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the federal government
Wednesday to declare San Benito County a disaster area months after
the county lost its entire citrus crop.
Hollister – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the federal government Wednesday to declare San Benito County a disaster area months after the county lost its entire citrus crop.
Schwarzenegger requested the United States Department of Agriculture designate San Benito County as a primary disaster area, according to the state’s Office of Emergency Services. While the USDA has made 24 California counties eligible to receive federal assistance, San Benito has yet to be added to the list, despite substantial losses.
San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich submitted a preliminary survey to the OES in February, reporting that local growers lost more than $1.7 million as a result of the cold weather.
“I imagine that will be a little higher than that for total losses,” Matulich said. “But a lot of that doesn’t show up until well after the freeze.”
If declared a primary disaster area, county growers could be eligible for direct assistance, Matulich said.
“Anybody that is considered a small grower, who grows $250,000 or less a year, could probably get the straight money to get them out of their losses,” he said.
Although San Benito County escaped the financial losses experienced in citrus-heavy Central Valley counties, the freeze took a toll on many family-run farms, Matulich said.
To be eligible as a United States Department of Agriculture disaster area, a county has to lose more than one-third of a specific crop, Matulich said. San Benito County became eligible after losing its entire citrus crop.
Janet Lompa, who with her family grows 60 acres of lemon trees off Southside Road, is the only citrus grower in the county.
The lemon crop was doing well before the freeze, Lompa said.
“We were ready to pick,” she said. “We had the biggest crop we’ve ever had.”
But lack of labor due to the Central Valley’s monopolization of pickers in the face of an eminent freeze made it impossible for the Lompas to save their crop. Lompa said the freeze damaged not only the fruit, but also the trees’ evergreen wood, jeopardizing future harvests.
Despite the possibility of San Benito County’s designation as a disaster area, the family will not be applying for federal assistance, Lompa said. The family believes the trees will come back.
“The wood underneath is still green,” she said.
Lompa said a freeze in 1999 killed their 4-year-old lemon trees, forcing the family to regraft the trees.
The family is hoping the effect of January’s freeze won’t be so drastic.
“We probably won’t pick a crop for another year,” Lompa said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or
mv*********@fr***********.com
.
