heli1-med.jpg (12670 bytes) Spring Mourning?
More helicopter pictures

"If you don't have the money you can't hire us! It trickles down to us, it affects us all." A helicopter at dawn applying much needed fertilizer to cranberry bogs (Joe Brigham Helicopter at left) is a welcome sight. However, all ancillary cranberry businesses are feeling the pinch as growers cut back. Difficult, stressful financial decisions are being made this spring, needed improvements and purchases are being postponed, and money that would normally be put back into the area economy is being used instead to meet basic expenses.

"What an appropriate title to your photo of Mr. Brigham's helicopter. As was noted, growers are not the only ones feeling the crunch. Other folks who service the cranberry industry have been hit extremely hard. How many cranberry growers are now thinking of reducing one of the planned applications of herbicides? Or going to a cheaper alternative? How many have taken their annual trip to Stearn's irrigation for new supplies (lines, heads, etc.)? How many have delayed replacing the old pick-up truck because the money simply isn't there? To say I "feel your pain" is inadequate. I don't know what it's like to take a 40 - 50% cut in pay. But I and a number of other folks who work for growers and have built their businesses around the cranberry industry are close. We may not have frost nights to worry about but we work just as hard trying to make an adequate living to put food on the table for our families and have a decent home in which to rest our bones. When growers hurt, we do too. Remember we're ALL in this together." Monika Weldon in the Stressline Forum