My guest this episode is Les Willms, one half of the ownership of LH Willms Incorporated, a 3000 acre grain farm in the Peace Country. If you’ve been a listener of the show for a while, you’ll already know Les, since he was a regular participant in last year’s Farming in BC Yearbook project.

Mentioned in this episode: an interview I conducted in 2023 with Public Health Scientist Bruce Lanphear.

The show today has two segments, both concerning undesirable amounts of water.

In segment one, Dave Russenberger wrestles with a public plan that carries serious implications for his dariy farm in the Sumas Prairie.

In segment two, greater Vernon farmers talk about the impacts of a mandatory 70% reduction to their annual irrigation allocation. Some believe this sacrifice could and should have been avoided, but I'm not so sure.

Links:

Sumas River Watershed Flood Mitigation Plan

The modern history of water planning in Greater Vernon

For this episode I wanted to explore the value of a good agricultural weather network, and to learn about an online resource for our sector called BC Agriweather. The person I invited to speak to this topic is Andy Nadler.

Andy is an agricultural meteorologist with a company called Peak HydroMet Solutions who has worked closely with the BC government to improve and maintain a province-wide network of weather monitoring stations that provides vital data for and about BC’s farming sector. Andy’s work has supported the creation of a website called BC Agriweather, which was the main focus of our conversation.