FARMINGTON – Just how climate change will effect Farmington and how we can prepare for it was the topic of discussion at a multigenerational forum held today a Mt. Blue High School.
High school students and teachers, members of the Gold LEAF Institute Senior College and interested community members spent 90 minutes imagining what changes the local community can expect from a warming world and then ideas to address those issues.
“Yes, it’s frightening,” Ethel Wilkerson said of climate change. “How are we going to plan for the future?” Wilkerson, of the Manomet Center for Conservation Services in Brunswick, hosted the meeting and similar meetings in rural Maine communities to bring awareness and to kick start ideas for an action plan.
With the combined high and low temperatures in Farmington recorded from 1900 to 2000 and displayed along a line graph, an increase of 3.9 degrees Fahrenheit is demonstrated. Some years have been colder, yes, but there are more warmer winters, particularly from about the 1970s.
In addition, much less snow can be expected to fall in the next 100 years. And what does hit the ground will be wetter and heavier, Wilkerson said. Ice-out dates on area lakes are coming earlier than previously recorded. Rangeley Lake’s ice-out date is nine days earlier, a steady progression noted since the 1850s.
Not all the warming news is bad. The seasonal duration will change and with it, the growing season will be extended by four to six weeks by 2100. A longer season with a changing plant hardiness zone will allow for a greater diversity of crops to be grown here.
The bad news continues though. We can expect to see more intense storm events, such as the ice storms of 1998 and this winter; last summer’s gully washers with more than 2 inches in a 48-hour period that cause heavy erosion that undermine roads and carry silt that choke the lakes will increase in number.
An overhead photograph taken in the winter of 2003 shows Farmington’s downtown as a virtual island after an ice jam backed up the Sandy River’s flow. The overflow brought five feet of water to Hippach Field and immersed dozens of cars parked at the University of Maine at Farmington.
“This is what our future will look like,” Wilkerson said. There are ideas of what to do to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as reducing our emissions through energy conservation to minimize the effects of warming temperatures.
Adaptations to the changing climate need advance planning and preparation “for the change we know is going to occur,” Wilkerson said. She pointed to Keene, N.H. where the public works department is replacing smaller culverts with larger pipes because of the increase of water flow already seen from the more intense storm events. It cost $27,822 to resize the culverts, but it took a total of $92,040 to rebuild a portion of road washed away after a small culvert couldn’t handle the surging flow of excessive water in a summer rain storm.
The Keene, N.H. example is one of planning ahead and adapting to the climate changes, where in the end, taxpayer money is saved. In southern Maine, snowmobile clubs are clearing trails of all brush so riders can use the trails with less snow on the ground. That change has allowed for more riding despite less snow on the trails.
“We don’t want to stick our heads in the sand,” Wilkerson said and do nothing to prepare for the changes.
Closer to home, Camilla Cai, said she wonders why Farmington allows for construction, such as the Rite Aid, in an area that regularly floods.
“The zoning ordinance in Farmington allows from building in that area,” Cai said. “We should be carefully planning and not building on a flood plain.”
Jeff Mitchell, a real estate broker in Farmington, said the way we build homes and buildings will need to change, such as steeper roofs when heavy rain follows deep snow and utility lines going underground if ice storms continue to hit. He also said the increasing number of foreclosures he’s seeing sometimes might be prevented or at least put off if a little effort was put into inexpensive energy efficiency, such as caulking windows and filling the gaps around exterior doors, so a savings in heating oil and electricity costs can be achieved.
Others wondered about more collective purchases of heating oil for better prices while exploring other ways to heat our homes, suggested Eileen Kreutz. Wood pellet plants bring a natural opportunity for the heavily forested Maine to take a national lead in moving away from oil use.
“But how can we do this and sustain it? It makes me nervous treating our forests like farms,” Wilkerson said. Thoughts turned to wind energy, incentives for homeowners to go solar, and the promise of a federal stimulus package that may provide affordable energy alternatives.
But, in the end, “people need help making the change,” said Jake Bogar, a teacher at Mt. Blue.
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High school students and teachers, members of the Gold LEAF Institute Senior College and interested community members spent 90 minutes imagining what changes the local community can expect from a warming world and then ideas to address those issues. |
