Christmas tree growers are 'overcoming historic challenges' to provide live trees to holiday buyers

Fraser firs are a holiday tree
favorite. (Photo by W. Hicks)

Picking out a live Christmas tree, even with the family haggling that often comes with it, is how many Americans officially begin their holiday season. But this year, Christmas tree farmers had to work harder and with more creativity to get those trees ready for sale, reports Valerie Bauerlein of The Wall Street Journal. "Growers are having to overcome historic challenges to get them to the lots."

The difficulties Christmas tree farmers face aren't limited to growing perfectly shaped trees. They also face tree disease, labor shortages, plastic tree competitors, and "inflation on everything from seeds to tractors," Bauerlein writes. "And that was before Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the western part of North Carolina, which produces more Christmas trees than any state except Oregon."

The beloved Fraser fir tree crop grows primarily in western North Carolina where flooding "left 95 people dead, washed out roads and destroyed homes," Bauerlein adds. Tree farmer Waightstill Avery III lost a barn, equipment and "60,000 trees, a third of the total at family-owned Trinity Tree Company-Avery Farms. Many of the damaged trees were partially submerged by floodwater. Others were covered in clingy silt that resists washing. . . . Avery’s staff have been recovering what they can."

Besides dealing with unpredictable weather, most tree farmers are short-staffed, with many using migrant workers to shore up labor gaps, but that solution has become more difficult and expensive. Bauerlein reports, "Tree farmer Rusty Barr said the regulations around hiring foreign workers have become increasingly cumbersome. . . . The hourly rate he pays is increasing to more than $16 next year, another cost to absorb."

The industry also faces a smaller pool of customers as "baby boomers stop putting up live trees," Bauerlein explains. "There is increasingly stiff competition from China-made artificial trees, which have become easier to assemble and more lifelike, sometimes boasting scents like 'white winter fir.' . . . Such challenges have buffeted market size: The number of trees harvested in the U.S. has declined 30% since 2002."

Even as the industry looks at this obstacle-filled season, "the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association said there should be enough supply for anyone who wants a real tree this year, though growers say that buyers might need to adjust their expectations," Bauerlein adds. "Some church groups that flock to the mountains to stock their tree lots back home have been intentionally seeking out scraggly 'Charlie Brown' trees as a show of support."