Maine Receives Drought Relief as Conditions Persist in Region
WASHINGTON—U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman approved disaster assistance for Maine this week to counter the losses that an ongoing drought in the region has caused, according to Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
Both New Hampshire and Maine have seen steady and harmful drought conditions for the past several years. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site, the drought has not been this severe in nearly four decades.
“Maine has suffered the effects of a drought that has saddled our state with below-normal precipitation, so this federal assistance is welcome to help farmers weather this difficult period,” Snowe and Collins said in a joint statement. “We are very pleased that Secretary Veneman has acted so promptly to approve the state’s request.”
Jan Pendlebury, New Hampshire director for the National Environmental Trust, said that drought conditions in the region remain a major concern, even though the heavy winter snows and rain have “probably put it out of sight, out of mind for most people.”
“[The region has] been under drought conditions for quite some time now, there’s been lots of effects,” Pendlebury said, adding that conditions in southern New Hampshire and Maine were especially severe.
Drought conditions, she said, have ruined harvests and caused significant losses for farmers in the region.
Maine will receive disaster relief under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Act of 2002, which designates all of Maine’s 16 counties as primary natural disaster zones. With that designation, farmers can now be considered for low-interest emergency loans from the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency.
“We just haven’t had the precipitation we need,” Pendlebury said, noting that in recent years New Hampshire and Maine have fallen below the average yearly rainfall of 42 inches.
She cited increased global warming as a contributor to the droughts. Because of intense heat and increased winds, evaporation occurs at a faster rate and the hydrological system-groundwater, top soil, tree roots-is limited.
“You can replace a lot of things, but you can’t replace water,” she said. “Last summer, one of the hottest summers on record, was a bit of a wakeup call.”
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
