Dry winter leaves Idaho landscapers shoveling for profits

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — Many Idaho landscapers depend on snow to keep business going, and this winter has made that challenging. Idahoans are used to seeing snowplows at every corner of the street, but this year, they have become a rare sight.

"Really slow. Obviously, we would like more snow than what we've gotten," said Dustin Inglett, Irrigation Maintenance Manager for T&T Lawn Services.

More snow means more work, but less snow means less to take to the bank.

"Our service time for landscape construction and maintenance is a shorter season. And a lot of your landscaping companies rely on snow plowing to bring in, you know, 20, 30, maybe 40% of their income," said Casey Price, Landscape Design Build Manager for T&T Lawn Services.

This lack of snow is also bringing concern for the future.

"Growing up in agriculture, it's always important to have water for your crops. We got to refill the aquifer, and hopefully we got enough still in the mountains to bring us along through the summertime," said Price.

"It's obviously even more important for the farmers, and where I'm an irrigation technician. Water is my job. So water conservation also plays a big factor in my day-to-day summer activities. And if we don't have much to begin with, then that makes my job harder," said Inglett.

These past few days of snow have been vital to the snowplow industry, and they hope it keeps on coming.

"Hopefully we get a bunch here in the next, next a little while, and we at least have a wet spring so that we can have enough moisture for the summer," said Price.