Leah Wagner and her husband Nick Schlosstein are farmers and business owners who work a half-acre farm plot in Haines which they rent from the American Bald Eagle Foundation. In addition to produce, they sell seeds: They offer more than 50 varietals of Alaska vegetables and plants on their website.
But in late April, their business crashed into a major challenge. The foundation told them floodwaters from a December rain disaster may have contaminated their farm.
They’ve been working the plot for the last five seasons, but the foundation told them that’s not an option this year.
“Their communication was that nobody would be allowed on the field,” Schlosstein said. “They weren’t sure when people would be allowed back out there.”
Runoff from intense December storms cut large ruts into the main crop field at what’s called the Henderson Farm. Sand, gravel and debris flowed into the field, which sits directly below a Haines to Fairbanks petroleum pipeline that was decommissioned in 1973. The pipeline suffered many leaks in the past, as well as a major spill at a tank farm.
Multiple studies have been done on the soil around the pipeline before, but none showed unsafe contamination levels, according to state officials.
This year, Wagner and Schlosstein had planned a series of infrastructure upgrades for their business, including building an additional hoop house on their property and doubling the farm plot from a half-acre to a full-acre.
Instead, the couple must now find storage for all of their farm equipment, lay off an employee, and radically change their projected business model for the year.
The American Bald Eagle Foundation declined to comment on the situation.
Schlosstein said they’re poised to lose all of their summer farm sales, which they projected to be half of their annual income.
“We’re going to be able to keep offering seed, but what we were unable to do this year is to continue our seed breeding efforts, and also to continue building our farm for local produce,” he said.
The couple’s company, called Foundroot, isn’t the only business facing removal. The Henderson Community Garden, which sells produce to local customers through farmer’s markets, has also been shut down.
Sue Waterhouse runs that project. She was all set to plant this spring.
“Last fall, you know, we tilled the land. We put seaweed on it, we put it to bed and we paid rent for this season,” she said.
But the American Bald Eagle Foundation was clear: Because of possible contamination to the field, all renters would be refunded their 2021 payments. Like Foundroot, members of the gardening group were instructed to have all possessions removed by the end of May.
Waterhouse said she moved her operation to a small plot at the Southeast Alaska Fair Grounds and will continue to grow as much produce as she can from there.
The foundation tasked the Takshanuk Watershed Council with collecting samples and sending them to a lab in Anchorage. Those samples came back late last week showing the presence of some contaminants — but the level of contamination has not been established. Neither the foundation or the council has a plan for cleanup or future business operations on the land.
The Department of Environmental Conservation and the Takshanuk Watershed Council said they’ll provide more details as they become available.
