Snow and Ice Cause Hoophouse Collapse at the Community Farm

The photo above shows the collapsed hoophouse at the Community Farm.

The late 2025 blizzard that hit the UP with an amazing amount of snow also rolled through Ishpeming, taking down our first hoophouse at the Community Farm. Despite snow being cleared from the sides, the rain that transitioned to ice aided in snow piling up on the south side of our hoop, making it extremely heavy and leading to a collapse. 

As unfortunate and frustrating as events like this are, it's a reminder of the realities of farming in the UP, and the challenges it brings. Thankfully we are set to finish the second hoophouse on site and begin growing in it this spring, allowing us to still access the season extension technology that hoophouses provide for our warm season crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. We removed the plastic from the structure to stabilize it, and will be dismantling it come late winter/early spring.

Next Steps

Repairing the Hoophouse

The power has been turned off to the structure, and from now into the spring our growing team will be working on cutting half of the plastic out to relieve the snow load from the structure itself, the other half will be salvaged and used for on-farm projects. The structure itself has components that are salvageable, and may be able to be re-used for a smaller structure. Internally, there is little damage to items inside the hoophouse, as the main part of the collapse occurred in the back half of the structure, the front half being where we have storage and transplant tables. 

Keep your eye on our events and news page or join our mailing list if you're interested in joining us for some volunteer dismantling days.