Sierra Club to present ‘Agriculture in Tioga County: A History of Transformation and Endurance’

On Thursday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m., Ed Nizalowski will present “Agriculture in Tioga County: A History of Transformation and Endurance.” The presentation will take place at the Hubbard Auditorium, Tioga County Office building located at 56 Main St. in Owego. 

The interaction between agriculture and the environment results in one of the major impacts that humans make on the landscape. Although agriculture still plays a big part in the economy and culture of Tioga County, it has gone through enormous changes and transformations since the early years of European settlement. 

Ed Nizalowski, who focused more on environmental history in his presentation for the Sierra Club back in January, will focus more on agriculture for his talk on Dec. 14.

Farmers in Tioga County began to experience economic difficulty shortly after the Civil War, which was a phenomenon taking place in all of the “old agricultural areas” of the Northeast. The entire rural economy was impacted due to population loss, a loss that would continue for half a century. 

Did farmers and community leaders fully understand the forces that were changing their way of life? Did the leaders and experts at the state and federal level offer any guidance or assistance of value? This presentation includes some of the historic accounts of various weather extremes through the years, such as the year without summer (1816), winters that would result in ice two feet thick on the Susquehanna, and the floods of the 1930s.

This event is sponsored by the Sierra Club Tioga County Task Force. For additional information, call or text Erin Riddle at (607) 372-5503 or email to riddleriddle@gmail.com.