My Ohio family has been selling Christmas trees for 61 years. So I know a bit about them. And I know a lot about the many friends I have who also raise and
sell trees. Christmas trees are one of the best crops a farmer can grow.
Just like in
permaculture, it really helps to take a little broader perspective than just one tree, just one action. First of all, by growing a crop that sells quite well, farmers are able to afford to keep their farms, keep their
land. It's tough to be a farmer. There is constant pressure to sell your land to developers. And food,
feed, and animal prices are constantly at the whims of the market. But with Christmas trees, you have a very firm idea of how your crop will turn out, and usually you know what your costs and income will be, year to year. Trees add stability to farm planning. For the nursery folks I know, it means their farms can be passed down to the next generation. One of my friends I was talking with just yesterday said that their farm of 400+ acres has been in the family for nearly 200 years, and half of that time they have been growing Christmas trees. Without the trees, their land would have been sold long ago and the family moved to (maybe) Fiji. It's a 20+ million-dollar acreage, that they will never allow to be developed as long as they can meet the bills by selling their trees. Stories like theirs (and ours) means that there are huge benefits to
local land development and use. More open fields and woods, fewer houses, benefits everyone.
But permaculturalists tend to look a little farther than just "is land open". It's also what happens to the land. By growing trees on often difficult to farm land, that land can grow a high paying crop where other crops might not fare so well. So again, trees can, and often do, help many farmers keep their land out of the hands of developers. But to the specifics of tree growing, every year Christmas trees shed a certain amount of needles. That builds fertile soil. Their
roots pull up minerals and nutrients. Young trees also produce more oxygen when they are young than when they are older. When Christmas trees are cut at 6 to 10 or 12 ft. tall, other trees nearby are left standing. There is rarely any clear cutting. Usually just a constant replanting continuously year to year. Older, much larger trees that do not sell are eventually removed to be replaced by young trees. Sometimes the removed trees are burned and the ashes are spread as fertilizer, while on some nurseries the trees are ground into chips and again spread as fertilizer. Again, more soil, less cement, good.
As to the whole chemical spraying thing, Ohio rather heavily regulates spraying. Times are definitely getting better. There was a time 50 years ago when we all sprayed DTD like it was drinking
water. More recently airplane spraying was used for applying less aggressive bug beaters. But farmers and nurserymen are not usually all that dumb. What has happened is that most of us now grow types of trees that don't require spraying. Years ago, scotch was the common tree. But they got saw flies and shoot moths. Few of those are grown now (I don't know where, but probably they are still around somewhere). Much more common these days are short needle firs, -around us, especially Canaan. It's true that some tree sellers like Walmart, Loews, and Home Depot sell "imported" trees. The big box guys care about price and
profit. So they will buy trees from out of state. Guys will be hired in the slow part of tree season, sometimes Sept./Oct., so they can be paid less. Then those trees are sprayed with green coloring and various other things to give them the appearance of fresh cut in December. That just doesn't happen on small local operations. So go to your local growers, just like you go to local farm markets, and you won't have the problem of tainted, adulterated trees. Plus, many communities now collect the trees (ours does) when happy families are done with them. The towns pick up the trees and grind them to make chips or
compost, which they then sell or give away free to local citizens. Win/win every step of the way.
I could go on a bit longer, but
enough for now. I've thought about Christmas trees and their effect on the environment, for many years now. Years ago I started and ran Ohio's longest lasting, biggest, all
volunteer recycling center. ~Long before recycling became a fashion. It is a subject very near and dear to my way of life and heart. And I can tell you that growing trees, for pretty much every reason, is a very good thing. You just have to look at the somewhat bigger picture.
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