TERRA BELLA CITRUS LOSSES MOUNT

For many, driving around Terra Bella is depressing when they see all the dying trees, or areas where trees have already been removed.

The fourth year of drought is taking its collective toll on the small community south of Porterville.

“It’s just compounded,” said citrus grower Lorren Wheaton of impacts of the drought on Terra Bella.

Terra Bella has very little underground water from which to draw upon. That is why for more than 60 years growers there have relied on the federal water delivered through the Terra Bella Irrigation District (TBID) — that is until last year when the federal Bureau of Reclamation shut off the spigot, delivering no water to farmers last year or this year.

There was an estimated 10,000 acres of citrus in TBID two years ago and that has dwindled to about 6,000 acres, said Sean Geivet, manager of TBID.

“TBID is unique,” said Geivet who has been trying to find water for those farmers for two summers now. “There really isn’t an alternate supply (of water),” he added.

Because of the geography, most farmers cannot access any underground water in Terra Bella. Farmers there relied on the Friant-Kern Canal to deliver what they need, to deliver enough water to at least keep their trees alive. That is not happening now.

Last year, Terra Bella, through expensive purchases, carryover water and exchanges, was able to find 11,000 acre feet of water. That kept most groves alive and even provided a crop for some farmers. This year, so far Geivet has been able to secure just 5,500 acre feet of water and just found another 500 acre feet of late water which might save a few orchards. That 500 feet is costly and not every grower can afford it any more.

“You can’t earn enough a year to pay for the water,” said Wheaton. “You spend $3,000 an acre foot or more to raise a crop that won’t bring in that much in two years,” he added.

Geivet said he estimates that about 4,000 acres of citrus have fallen to the bulldozer. Some of that has been replanted in young citrus, and a lot has been planted in pistachios. Geivet said while pistachios require about the same amount of water to produce a crop, they require a lot less water to keep the trees alive.

Bob Blakley, with California Citrus Mutual, said the estimate is more than 20,000 acres of citrus has been lost statewide in the past two years, the majority of that in Tulare County.

Terra Bella is ground zero for those citrus losses. 

“Not all of that is being replanted,” said Blakley, who added 30 percent of all citrus in California comes from Tulare County.

Much of what is occurring is farmers have accelerated their plans to pull out old or less productive orchards because they don’t have the water now, said Blakley.

However, that loss will have an impact for five or six years, he added, the time it takes a new orchard to begin producing a crop.

“There’s almost as much dead orchards as live orchards,” said Wheaton, who farms 600 acres there.

He said he has managed to keep his trees alive. He has a few marginal wells which help, and has paid the high price for water.

He blamed the federal government for putting Terra Bella growers in such a dire situation.

“It’s a screwed up, damn deal,” he said, explaining the reason Terra Bella was given a Class 1 entitlement water was because it does not a groundwater supply.

Geivet said TBID was formed in 1915 and started with the Deer Creek Ditch Company. In the late 1950s the Bureau agreed to send them water down the newly constructed canal. For more than 60 years, some water was delivered, drought or no drought. It wasn’t until last year that no water was delivered and no one knows what the future holds. Geivet said many growers have told him they will not be able to afford expensive water next year.

Terra Bella has been growing citrus since the early 1900s and is considered a prime area to produce oranges. Geivet said when the canal water became available, the number of acres in citrus more than doubled in the Terra Bella District which is just 14,000 acres total.

Wheaton said all farmers can do is hope for rain this winter and a surface supply of water next spring.

“If you weren’t convinced it will get better, you’d just quit,” he said.

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