From right: Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm, his wife, Mary, their one-year-old Kinli, and Sophia Koopmeiners, greenhouse manager, stand for a photo in a greenhouse on the farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston, points out the high water mark from flooding on the Yellowstone River at a greenhouse on the farm on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Dried mud deposited by flooding on the Yellowstone River crumbles through Montana Roots aquaponic farm owner Sam Mascari's fingers at the farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Seeds washed away during flooding on the Yellowstone River sprout in the ground of a greenhouse at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Red cabbage sprouts grow in a tray at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston, lifts a tray of red cabbage sprouts to reveal their roots underneath on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
The high water mark from recent flooding on the Yellowstone River can be seen on a greenhouse at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
From right: Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm, his wife, Mary, their one-year-old Kinli, and Sophia Koopmeiners, greenhouse manager, stand for a photo in a greenhouse on the farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston, points out the high water mark from flooding on the Yellowstone River at a greenhouse on the farm on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Dried mud deposited by flooding on the Yellowstone River crumbles through Montana Roots aquaponic farm owner Sam Mascari's fingers at the farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Seeds washed away during flooding on the Yellowstone River sprout in the ground of a greenhouse at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Red cabbage sprouts grow in a tray at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston, lifts a tray of red cabbage sprouts to reveal their roots underneath on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
The high water mark from recent flooding on the Yellowstone River can be seen on a greenhouse at Montana Roots aquaponic farm in Livingston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
For Sophia Koopmeiners, greenhouse manager at Montana Roots, June 13 started as just another normal Monday at work.
It had been raining on and off for the past few weeks, but even with water high in the Yellowstone, no one imagined the river would breach Ninth Street Island — home to the farm and a handful of houses in Livingston.
Koopmeiners started her day with the normal routine. She checked the aquaponics system, which allows the farm to grow plants without soil, instead suspending roots in tubs of water. She fed the fish, who supply nutrients to the waterbound plants, and tidied up, all while the river steadily crept onto the island.
By 1 p.m. that day, the fire department came to evacuate her.
Water flooded their land and greenhouses, getting as high as 4 feet in some places. The river submerged their outdoor vegetable garden entirely, leaving it buried under several inches of silt as the water retreated. The flooding took out the fences surrounding the garden, too, so forcefully it bent some metal posts to a right angle.
Fortunately, Koopmeiners had thought to move the farm delivery vehicle to higher ground before she was evacuated, or that would have been swept away.
Sam Mascari, owner of Montana Roots, which focuses on growing microgreens year round in climate-controlled greenhouses, said the structures on the farm were badly damaged and need extensive clean up and repairs.
The flooding also destroyed over $1,000 worth of seed, which was a huge loss to the farm, Koopmeiners said. It ruined most of their compostable packaging and labels, broke water pumps and fridges, and damaged some electrical outlets and wires that will need to be replaced.
The farm uses raised beds in their greenhouse and aquaponic system so the fish and most of the crops growing indoors were okay.
The day after the flood, Mascari said almost 20 volunteers showed up unprompted to help Montana Roots clean up the mess.
That was definitely the most emotional time, Koopmeiners said — the direct aftermath and seeing the damage. “Some tears were shed,” she said.
Over the past two weeks, teams of people have come to the farm to help move everything out of the greenhouses, shovel out mud, hose down the floors and walls, move equipment back in, and haul destroyed furniture to the dump.
In the aftermath of the flooding, cleaning up the farm has been “kind of a triage” situation, Koopmeiners said.
Their first priority was getting their microgreens — the farm’s main product — back up and running.
They sanitized their growing area as soon as they could after the flood. Koopmeiners said they were able to start reseeding around Thursday, a few days after Monday’s flooding.
“We’re trying to get back to full production as soon as possible, so we can have some source of income,” Koopmeiners said.
The farm produces around 4,000 pounds of microgreens annually, among a few other leafy greens. In the summer, microgreens have a notably short growing period — between 10 and 15 days from seed to harvest. That has helped them start to grow product again quickly, but there will still be a lapse in production because of the amount of seeds lost to water damage, Mascari said.
The priority now is to “get a handle on the mud situation,” Koopmeiners said. “It’s a pretty enormous clean-up project.”
The support they received is a “huge benefit of living in a small town,” Mascari said.
“We just feel so grateful for everybody’s help,” Koopmeiners said.
Two weeks after the flood, there was a waterline still visible on the wood of the raised beds in the greenhouse, less than a foot away from the plants. The walls were etched with a waterline nearly 3 feet high.
Patches of tiny sprouts had also emerged from the greenhouse floor, a result of dropped seeds accidentally getting watered by the flood.
Outside, some of the vegetable plants had started to poke through the caked-on silt, but it’s nothing worth salvaging, Koopmeiners said.
Mascari said he thought the farm, which he started in 2012, would be okay on the island. He grew up in Livingston and was there for the flood of 1998. The river didn’t come close to flooding the island then the way it did last month, he said.
To Mascari, this flood is an example of “climate change hitting home.” He said he doesn’t know if Montana will see these 500-year flood events happening more frequently. But it has him worried enough that he’s considering moving the business to higher ground.
If they decide to make the switch, Mascari would move Montana Roots up near his home on Wineglass Hill. It’s not a decision he’s making lightly.
Mascari grew up playing on Ninth Street Island, and has a lot of childhood memories in the area. He has a strong and spiritual connection to the land and it would be incredibly difficult to leave, he said. But he worries about rebuilding only to have another massive flood take everything out again in a few years.
A silver lining of the flood and its destruction is that it prompted Mascari to seriously think about rebuilding the business in a more ideal setting, one that’s less subject to flooding. His eventual goal is to have a teaching farm and retreat center.
Montana Roots leases its land and greenhouses from another owner. Since they don’t own the buildings themselves, it would make sense to take out a loan and move locations.
Mascari said he’ll apply for a loan from the Small Business Administration to see if he could get funding to move locations and rebuild. If it happens, it wouldn’t be until next year, he said.
The impact the flooding has had on the farm is enormous. Mascari said he hasn’t even bothered yet to sit down and crunch the numbers of just how costly the damage was.
They have launched the Montana Roots Recovery Fund on GoFundMe, with the goal of raising $35,000 for immediate costs like replacing seed and renting a skid steer to remove debris.
“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Koopmeiners said. “But we’re getting there.”
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Isabel Hicks can be reached at 406-582-2651 or at ihicks@dailychronicle.com.
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