This story by Fiona Sullivan and Cassandra Hemenway was first published in the Bridge on Dec. 17.

Excess rain caused by climate change could be linked to challenges with growing Christmas trees in Vermont. 

“The soil has been saturated for a year or more,” said Steve Moffatt from Moffatt’s Tree Farm in Craftsbury. With saturated soil, Moffatt said, there is a “lack of oxygen, so roots can’t breathe. … when it’s warm and wet in June you get more foliar disease, and the soil is wetter so you get more soil-related diseases.” Moffatt said a “noticeable percentage” of his trees are dead or dying because of soil saturation. 

Will Sutton, who co-owns Balsam Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Worcester along with his wife Sue Sutton, said their farm lost 300 trees in the July 2024 flood, and 150 trees were lost in the 2023 flood. As of Sunday, Dec. 15, they had just two trees left for sale.

“We lost a whole year’s worth of trees in the flood,” Will Sutton said, noting that they typically sell about 300 trees at their “choose and cut” location on Elmore Road/Vermont Route 12 each year. “There’s been so much moisture that it’s taking (the soil) longer to drain out, so we’re finding more and more damage to other trees. We culled out 300 trees because of the flood, but we’re now seeing trees that are turning yellow even this late in the season.”

The Suttons have two other fields uphill from their choose-and-cut location, which sits adjacent to the North Branch of the Winooski River. Those fields are not seeing the kinds of tree damage the wetter Route 12 trees are having.

In fact, a study by Trace One notes that Washington County farms are expected to lose a total of $137,148 per year to natural disasters; it goes on to note that “the worst type of natural hazard for Washington County agriculture is riverine flooding, which can inundate farmland, damage crops, and disrupt planting and harvest cycles.”

Back in Craftsbury, Moffatt said he notices a decline in the trees sooner than most people would because his livelihood depends on it. There are “subtle hints,” such as declining color, lack of growth, and a “general look that it’s not that happy.” 

Moffatt said he currently grows balsam fir and Fraser fir and has had a similar amount of tree loss between the two species. 

Although Fraser fir is more sensitive to cold and has done better with the warmer winters, he said, it is also more sensitive to wet conditions and easily damaged from wet soil. Moffatt also noted that overall there are fewer trees available now compared to 40 years ago. There are fewer people growing trees and planting trees, and, he said, the average age of the tree farmer is 80. 

Not all growers have had difficulty growing Christmas trees. Thomas Paine from Paine’s Christmas Trees in Morristown said the effects of climate change are “minimal,” and “the only year we had significant problems [with excess rain] was two years ago.” Much of his soil is gravel and sand, which allows for easy drainage. 

Jane Murray from Murray Hill Farm in Waterbury said that although their driveway is muddier than ever before, they have mostly avoided water damage to their trees because they planted on slopes. She said people who planted in valleys have issues, and that most of the damage caused by flooding has been in the Northeast Kingdom. 

The Wesley United Methodist Church in Waterbury has stopped selling Christmas trees, at least in 2024. The church’s answering machine states, “We will not be selling Christmas trees this year due to the scarcity of trees and also the higher cost.” 

Moffatt maintained “It’s not just me, a lot of people I talk to are having this issue.” He said, “I have to look 10 years down the line.” And with native timber, such as ash, balsam fir, and beech not doing well, he’s considering planting red oak in his other timber lots, he said. 

As far as Christmas trees, he is now considering planting trees such as Noble fir and Korean fir, trees that, he said, “I wouldn’t have even considered five years ago.” 

In an unprecedented public attack that quickly spread across social media, a woman was lit on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday. The suspect arrested in connection to her heinous death is a previously deported migrant from Guatemala, as calls to end New York City’s sanctuary policies enacted under former Mayor Bill de Blasio are escalating.

Sources previously identified the person of interest to Fox News Digital as Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, as well as first-degree arson.

Zapeta was apprehended by Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after he crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Marie Ferguson told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later re-entered the U.S. illegally. 

SUSPECT ACCUSED OF BURNING WOMAN TO DEATH ON NYC SUBWAY IS PREVIOUSLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

“It’s beyond time to end sanctuary-city policies in New York,” the New York Post editorial board wrote, adding that Zapeta “re-entered the country and, at some point thereafter, headed for New York, where local policies guarantee shelter, food and other taxpayer-funded aid to migrants and forbid cops from working with ICE to deport even the ones who commit new crimes.”

“In other words, he went where he’d be most able to do anything and everything he wanted, without much regard for the law or fear of consequences,” the board continued.   

Surveillance video of Sunday’s attack showed the suspect approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and may have been sleeping, while aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station and then setting her on fire.

NYPD ARRESTS MIGRANT WHO ALLEGEDLY SET WOMAN ON FIRE ON SUBWAY TRAIN, WATCHED HER BURN TO DEATH

Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman aboard a subway car was set on fire and died in New York, United States on December 22, 2024. Police believe the woman had been sleeping aboard the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference on Sunday evening, adding that the female victim was in a seated position. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”

The suspect then stayed on the scene and sat on a bench just outside the train car, as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

After three high school-aged New Yorkers called 911, the suspect was arrested just hours after the attack while riding on the same subway line. He was found with a lighter in his pocket, according to Tisch. 

VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS LINKED TO VIOLENT APARTMENT TAKEOVER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK CITY

Police investigates the scene where a woman died after being lit on fire by a man aboard an MTA subway train as she slept at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, United States on Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“People are tired of the revolving door where people are constantly committing violent crimes and back on our streets…it is not a safe haven for those who are committing criminal acts,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News last week in a discussion about the city’s sanctuary policies. “Violent individuals should not remain in our country.” 

Adams is the first big city mayor to sit down with incoming border czar Tom Homan against the wishes of his own city leaders, saying he will work with the Trump administration to deport migrant criminals from his city. 

This month and prior to Sunday’s attack, Adams said there has been a 22-week drop in migrant arrivals into New York City, allowing for the closure of many of the migrant shelters used for housing, though the city has seen more than 225,000 migrants arrive since 2022, a surge that coincided with a spike at the southern border. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

WEST ROXBURY – The holidays are a busy time for food pantries. But with the number of Massachusetts families facing food insecurity now at a staggering 35%, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank, keeping those shelves stocked is a year-round job.

Darra Slagle is passionate about food. And it comes in box after box, bag after bag, to Rose’s Bounty food pantry in West Roxbury where she is executive director. 

“I just love doing this. I love feeling like at the end of the day, my job meant something,” Slagle says.

“There’s always something to do”

And she’s tireless, wrangling countless volunteers at the pantry.

“There’s always something to do here,” Slagle said. “There’s so much work that nobody is ever at a loss.”

Rose’s Bounty puts together food bags every week to help 2,000 people in a state where food insecurity reaches one in three households.

“And this city, this state that’s so wealthy that nobody should be going without food on their table,” Slagle said.

Thousands of pounds of food orders

What Slagle gets little of is downtime. When she does, it’s at home making food orders for the pantry. On one day she showed WBZ-TV how she ordered more than 12,000 pounds. She will order 20,000 pounds for the entire week thanks to grants and donations.

“It’s a lot of effort on my part. Spreadsheets, I’m a big fan of spreadsheets,” she said.

Her drive to the pantry may be less than 2 miles from home, but passing these houses every day she says reminds her no one really knows the need behind closed doors.

“There’s probably a lot of mouths in that house to feed. Food’s expensive. Rent’s high,” Slagle said.

That’s what drives her to the pantry every day, ready for the next round of donations that will fill the shelves and help the homebound – the community Slagle wants to make sure doesn’t go hungry.

“It’s a really happy place to be,” she said. “And we’re all working hard to do something good for our community.”