Editor’s note: Last year’s historic flooding in Vermont caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to farms across the state. This is the last of four stories chronicling how farms are recovering and what they are doing to plan for this year’s growing season.

Sandwiched between the Winooski River and Lake Champlain, the farmers at Intervale Center in Burlington, Vt., are used to seeing flooding.

Then, the great flood of 2023 came. “It was an indescribable amount of water. It was honestly terrifying,” says Mandy Fischer, director of programs at the center.

The floodwaters sliced through the many fields of fruits and vegetables grown by tenant farmers on the 120-acre complex. The timing was bad. Some crops were being harvested; others were close to harvest. The flooding caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage. Many farmers lost their entire crop.

But as devastating as it was, last year’s flood highlighted a community that comes together when things go bad. A community that has learned lessons from the past and is trying to make its farms more resilient to Mother Nature.

“From our perspective, it is about how do we maximize the land for annual vegetable production during years when it doesn't flood, and how do we make sure the farmers that take care of the land are taken care of themselves when it does flood, and then how do we balance it with conservation goals, recreation and community engagement,” Fischer says.

Farm in the city

Historically, the area of Burlington known as Intervale was a farm for centuries before becoming a city dump in the 1930s. A local businessman, Will Raap, envisioned the area getting back to its agricultural roots, and in 1988, he and others established the Intervale Foundation, later renamed Intervale Center.

The center hosts seven tenant farmers who lease 120 acres of farmland. Farms range from only 1.5 acres up to 40 acres. Some farms rent multiple parcels that aren’t contiguous.

An equipment company, established as an LLC, owns much of the center’s ag equipment and infrastructure. It is 70% owned by the farmers, Fischer says, with the idea being that even though the farmers don’t own their land, they can build equity through ownership in the company.

Community response

Like many farms across the state, the seven farms at Intervale experienced heavy damage from the flood.

It got so bad that fields had to be traversed using canoes and kayaks for days.

Almost immediately, Fischer says the center activated an action plan that was created after the effects of Hurricane Irene in 2011. The Intervale Farmers Recovery Fund was reactivated, raising more than $100,000 in just a few days and more than $350,000 overall.

The Vermont Foodbank distributed food to 90 families, including those with the center’s New Farms for New Americans program that supports subsistence farmers originally from other countries that have settled in the state.

DEVASTATING FLOOD: The floodwaters from last July’s storms sliced through the many fields of fruits and vegetables grown by tenant farmers on the 120-acre Intervale Center complex. The timing was bad. Some crops were being harvested; others were close to harvest. The flooding caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage.

After Hurricane Irene, the center worked with farmers to retrofit infrastructure, including moving electrical lines and retrofitting buildings with new concrete floors, marine boards, and orienting greenhouses and hoophouses so they don't restrict water flow.

There was a response and preparedness plan to move equipment quickly, tie things down and move vehicles to higher ground.

New buffers to reduce soil erosion were also installed after Irene. “In some ways, the flooding was experiential since we got to see the effects of riparian buffers and trees, and how it blunted some of the impact from the flooding,” Fischer says.

Farmers also registered with Farm Service Agency to be eligible for federal funds.

But one of the biggest things that made an impact, Fischer says, was providing meals. Vermont Emergency Eats, established during the pandemic, contacted local restaurants that could make meals for the farmers.

They were delivered to the center where the farmers came out on hay wagons to have lunch, a welcome reprieve from the flood recovery.

“And having that was important. People just lost their income. Just having that sense of community that you can come and have lunch, come pick up food, see your community, was really needed at that time,” Fischer says. “I’ve been here for 18 years. I've been in this community for 20 years, and there are farmers here who were among the first people to hold my child when she was born. They are my family. So, to see how devastating that was, we are a very close-knit community and would do anything for each other.”

Building more resilience

Flooding happens naturally between the Winooski River and Lake Champlain. Some flooding is good for the soil, to replenish nutrients and organic matter.

The key, Fischer says, is building enough resilience for farmers to be able to continue producing while dealing with what will likely be more frequent weather events as climate changes.

“This problem isn't going to go away. But this also continues to be a really good place to farm,” she says.

After Hurricane Irene, the center did a full assessment of its land to see areas that were susceptible to flooding. Farmers took the lead, she says, to identify parcels to take out of production and to add areas where production could be increased, such as hayfields or parks.

NOT NORMAL: Sandwiched between the Winooski River and Lake Champlain, flooding is a constant threat at the Intervale Center. But last year’s flooding was different. “It was an indescribable amount of water. It was honestly terrifying,” says Mandy Fischer, director of programs at the center.

It remains to be seen if another land inventory will be done. But Fischer says the center is more focused on building more resilient farms that can handle more storms. That will likely mean more conservation practices.

“It’s less about moving parcels from place to place where it may be safer or higher elevation,” she says. “Because, quite frankly, those places don’t exist here.”

Irene and last year’s flood were the worst events she’s seen ever since moving to the area nearly 20 years ago.

The center works with 150 other farms in the state. The hope, Fischer says, is that the collaborative model in Burlington can be copied in other places.

"The soils, the market, the friendships around here make it worth it most years," she says. "We're going to see drastic reductions in yields just about everywhere because of late frosts, or pests, or flood or pounding rain, or all these things. And so we should grow food where we can, and we need to grow more food. We need to think about how do you balance conserving land and opening up land for agriculture in our state.”

BUILDING RESILIENCE: The Intervale Center is more focused on building resilient farms that can handle more storms. That means installing more conservation practices, such as tree buffers, to help reduce soil erosion. “In some ways, the flooding was experiential since we got to see the effects of riparian buffers and trees, and how it blunted some of the impact from the flooding,” Mandy Fischer says.