Charred crops to hurt farmers not consumers

updated 7:07 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2007

Wind-driven wildfires torching Southern California have charred fruit orchards, wilted flowers and littered the ground with avocados, delivering a devastating blow to area farmers already reeling from a deep winter freeze and the long drought that followed.

The final damage for growers won't be known until they're allowed to return to their lands, but some estimate losses in the millions of dollars.

"This situation here is the worst I've seen in terms of impact on individuals, families, homes, businesses," said Charley Wolk, who's been farming in San Diego County for 35 years, and now manages hundreds of acres of mostly avocados, citrus and flowers.

Despite the destruction, consumers are unlikely to pay more at the supermarket because imported avocados and citrus fruits will make up for shortages.

In San Diego County, where flames continue to eat into the dry, rolling terrain, the crop losses are greatest. County agriculture officials expect damage to dozens of commodities, from eggs to oranges, in the approximately 11,212 farm acres overcome by fire — enough to put a big dent into an industry that contributes about $1.4 billion yearly to the local economy.

"It's looking cataclysmic at the moment," said Eric Larson, head of the county Farm Bureau.

Avocados may be the hardest hit. California harvests nearly all domestically grown avocados, with San Diego County's production leading the state. About one-third of the fruit's crop in the state was believed to be in the fires' path, with more groves threatened, agriculture officials said.

San Diego County also leads the state in the number of plant nurseries, many of which were right in the line of the flames, said Bob Falconer, executive vice president of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers.

"Our losses will certainly be in the millions — it's just a question of whether it'll be tens of millions or hundreds of millions," said John Demshki, president of the Corona-College Heights Orange & Lemon Association, which packs citrus and avocados for about 600 farmers in Southern California.

"This is serious — worse than 2003, worse than anything I've seen," he said, referring to wildfires that tore through five Southern California counties four years ago.

Calif. fires' economic impact Tax deadline pushed back for Calif. fire victims California adds up the cost of wildfire damages As Calif. burns, shopping traffic slows Economy will rebound from fire’s damage Charred crops to hurt farmers not consumers Fires destroy one-third of Calif. avocado crop

This year's fires, fanned by fierce Santa Ana winds, have so far scorched more than 482,000 acres — about 753 square miles — from Ventura County north of Los Angeles east to the San Bernardino National Forest and south to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The flames' erratic dance through the hilly chaparral in the northeastern part of San Diego County has left a surreal landscape of gnarled stumps and blackened earth.

The first field workers wandered back into a Christmas tree farm in northeastern San Diego County on Thursday, wearing masks as they tried to right trees that had been toppled by the wind and water any that had made it through the flames and the hot, dry winds.

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