WASHINGTON  – After a spring freeze that destroyed cropland on farms stretching from Western New York to the Hudson Valley, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), New York’s first member of the Senate Agriculture Committee in four decades, is calling on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack to declare 34 New York counties as federal disaster areas. 

In a letter to Secretary Vilsack, Senator Gillibrand pressed for the disaster declarations so New York farmers can access federal funds to help them recover losses and stay afloat this season. 

“For New York State’s economy to grow, we need our farms to thrive,” Gillibrand said. “Still recovering from last year’s back-to-back natural disasters, farmers across the state were hit again with late frost that’s costing them even more crops. We need to open up access to federal resources so these farmers can get back to business, and keep New York’s agricultural industry on the move.”

After a winter of record high temperatures, many crops on New York farms blossomed earlier than usual. Many of these crops were then exposed to early spring freezing temperatures, and were destroyed as a result. Across the state, more than 3 million acres of farmland have experienced 30 percent loss or greater, while many farms suffered 100 percent losses, including farms that were still struggling to recover from the damage of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee.

Federal agriculture disaster recovery programs can provide a variety of tools to assist farmers in overcoming the challenges they can face as they work to recover from production and physical losses on their farms and rebuild their business, including financial assistance to compensate for farm losses, low interest emergency loans, and assistance in rehabilitating farm land.

Gillibrand is requesting federal disaster declarations for the following counties: Albany, Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Erie, Essex, Fulton, Greene, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Niagara, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Rensselear, Rockland, Saratoga, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca, Tompkins, Ulster, Washington, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates.