Christmas trees may be a whimsical addition to holiday decorations, but the Christmas tree industry is a serious business. Lining the highways of western North Carolina are more than 25,000 acres of Christmas tree farms, full of rows of firs that are ready to be harvested, shipped off and sold Thanksgiving weekend and after for the holidays.
“The North Carolina Department of agriculture reports that last year there were over $85 million in Christmas tree receipts,” said Jennifer Greene, the executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association.
North Carolina is second in the nation for Christmas tree production, behind only Oregon, mainly due to the state’s monopoly on what is considered by many to be the perfect species of Christmas tree — the Fraser fir, indigenous to the state. About 5 million are harvested each year.
“The revenue for Christmas trees in the states is over $100 million a year, and most of that is from Fraser fir, which can only be easily grown in the mountains of North Carolina,” said John Frampton, a professor of forestry and environmental resources and Christmas tree geneticist.
The Fraser fir was named after Scottish botanist John Fraser, who discovered the tree in the late 1700s. The firs are hard to come by naturally — not only are they are a high-elevation species, only growing in altitudes 3,000 feet or higher, but they also have a very limited regional range. However, despite its rarity, the species is in high demand.
“It’s got a nice conical shape to it. It’s got a nice color. It’s soft,” Frampton said. “It holds ornaments well, has a very nice aroma to it, and lastly, one really important thing is that it has very good post-harvest needle retention.”
Christmas tree breeders start with seeds collected from Fraser fir mother trees that were growing wild and then breed desirable qualities into their trees by selecting the best ones from each harvest and using them to create the next generation. The taller the Christmas tree, the more it is worth, and while tree quality is a subjective trait, breeders mainly look for trees with the best branching patterns and needle retention after harvest.
Income from Fraser fir production mainly goes to the mountain communities of North Carolina, which have recently replaced traditional agriculture.
“It’s a rural area where there are not a lot of other sources of income, so it’s important to the people in the western part of the state,” Frampton said.
Though Fraser fir production contributes to western North Carolina’s economic stability, the Christmas tree industry has been declining steadily due to the recession and the popularity of artificial Christmas trees and n.
Because Christmas trees take about eight years to grow, farmers planted more trees than they are now able to sell, which has driven tree prices down and made times tough for Christmas tree farmers.
“The average farm in North Carolina is 10 acres or less. I don’t think that the Christmas tree industry is decreasing, but some of the smaller farms are selling out to bigger growers,” Greene said.
Moreover, pest problems have been developing. The two main problems have been root rot, called phytophthora — a Greek word that means “plant destroyer” — and an introduced insect, the balsam wooly adelgid. Frampton is researching ways to combat both of them.
Unable to find resistance to the root rot in Fraser firs, Frampton has been inoculating and breeding resistance to the disease in other species of trees, such as the Moni fir, which is native to Japan. Frampton then teaches growers to graft the roots of the Moni firs to Fraser fir seedlings, creating plants with resistant roots and Fraser fir appearances.
While many people believe artificial trees, natural trees’ biggest competitors, to be environmentally friendly because they are reusable, they do not decompose once they break or are thrown out. On the other hand, natural Christmas trees that have been thrown away can easily be recycled.
“Most of them are chipped up and made into compost,” Frampton said. They are also used to help stabilize sand dunes on beaches and are sunk in lakes for fish habitats.
Moreover, Christmas tree farms themselves have environmental benefits, like creating habitats for wildlife and carbon storage.
“One acre of Christmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirement for 18 people,” Greene said.
Most of all, Greene said he supports Christmas trees because they are important to local farmers, and he encourages people to buy trees to support their state.