美国国家公共电台 NPR Michigan's Tart Cherry Orchards Struggle To Cope With Erratic Spring Weather

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

So far this year, cold weather has frozen blueberries in the south. Rains have drowned lettuce¹ in California. And in Michigan where tart² cherries are big business, growers are preparing for a long battle with extreme weather. Peter Payette from Interlochen Public Radio reports.

PETER PAYETTE, BYLINE³: Cherry growers in Michigan know one tree really well - the Montmorency tart cherry.

JIM NUGENT: It makes a very nice pie, very nice dried product. It's very cold hardy⁴.

PAYETTE: That's Jim Nugent, a grower in northern Michigan. When he says cold hardy, he means in the winter, not when the buds come out in the spring.

NUGENT: The variety we grow of the Montmorency gets to a very susceptible⁵ stage for frost damage quite early in that bud development.

PAYETTE: In 2002 and 2012, freezing temperatures wiped out almost the entire tart cherry crop here. Nugent jokes he couldn't harvest enough cherries to make a pie. Today he's pruning⁶ trees with a handsaw. Growers this year were alarmed by a hot spell in February, but the trees are OK. But Jim Nugent hasn't done anything to protect his orchards⁷ from the next severe cold snap.

NUGENT: There's not a huge amount we can do in the short run.

PAYETTE: That doesn't mean there's nothing. Todd Springer is trying to deal with another problem related to climate change - poor pollination⁸. He's hanging a homemade beehive made of a white bucket and brown cardboard straws.

TODD SPRINGER: Angling the box down just a little bit so that if it does rain, the water doesn't collect in the box.

PAYETTE: Inside the straws are a different kind of bee called hornfaced. Springer says he's breeding them because the honeybees that usually pollinate his fruit don't like the erratic⁹ spring weather either.

SPRINGER: If it's blowing and if it's rainy and cold, honeybees stay in the hive.

PAYETTE: Springer says he's doing this to make sure his family can keep farming land they've been on since 1868.

SPRINGER: If we don't grow cherries, we don't get to keep our farm.

PAYETTE: Todd Springer says talking about climate change is tough for cherry growers because everyone has so much at stake. He was at a conference once with a speaker talking about warming temperatures when a grower got angry and yelled.

SPRINGER: And claimed that this information was just presented to cost us more money as farmers.

PAYETTE: Last month, Springer signed up for an all-day workshop on climate, but it was canceled due to lack of interest. He says it's ironic¹⁰ that one of the talks was about whether the public cares about the problems climate change might cause farmers.

SPRINGER: And we couldn't get more than 11 farmers to come to the meeting to care about it (laughter). And so it's a - I don't know what that says, but like I said, it's hard to talk about. It's hard to listen to.

PAYETTE: The public does care, at least in Michigan. Julie Winkler is a geology professor at Michigan State University who was supposed to share some of her research at the conference. She found people want the government to help farmers adapt to climate change, especially when asked about the problem during record hot weather.

JULIE WINKLER: It was up to 80 percent, but it fell then back to about 70 percent after the warm spell. So it actually was quite strong.

PAYETTE: If there were money to help cherry farmers adapt, it's not clear yet how it would best be spent. There are experiments with sprinklers to cool trees and keep them dormant¹¹ a little longer in the spring. Jim Nugent thinks what's really needed is a new breed of tart cherry that's more frost-tolerant.

NUGENT: I'm not sure 50 years from now if Montmorency is still going to be a viable¹² variety.

PAYETTE: Researchers are trying to breed trees that bloom later, but introducing a new breed to the market can take decades. For NPR News, I'm Peter Payette in Traverse City, Mich.

(SOUNDBITE OF STAR PARKS SONG, "LOOSE ENDS")

1 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

2 tart   

adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇

参考例句：

• She was learning how to make a fruit tart in class.她正在课上学习如何制作水果馅饼。
• She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。

5 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

6 pruning   

n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分

参考例句：

• In writing an essay one must do a lot of pruning. 写文章要下一番剪裁的工夫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A sapling needs pruning, a child discipline. 小树要砍，小孩要管。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

8 pollination   

n.授粉

参考例句：

• The flowers get pollination by insects.这些花通过昆虫授粉。
• Without sufficient pollination,the growth of the corn is stunted.没有得到充足的授粉，谷物的长势就会受阻。

9 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

10 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

11 dormant   

adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

参考例句：

• Many animals are in a dormant state during winter.在冬天许多动物都处于睡眠状态。
• This dormant volcano suddenly fired up.这座休眠火山突然爆发了。

12 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。