Page 32 - AT

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 13 december 2018

Christmas tree farmers combat popularity of artificial trees

By GILLIAN FLACCUS my car, get it into the house
Associated Press — all of that,” she said. “It’s
TUALATIN, Ore. (AP) — Rosa totally for convenience.”
Villarreal’s three young sons Harman says Christmas tree
jumped and ran around farmers are overestimating
the field of Christmas trees the threat to their industry
like jackrabbits, their ex- from artificial trees.
citement palpable as they Many families now have
raced from evergreen to both a real tree and an ar-
evergreen. The boys, ages tificial tree, and small mom-
2, 4 and 6, were picking and-pop tree farms that al-
out a real tree this year — low families to cut their own
a new tradition their young evergreen remain extreme-
parents hope will create ly popular, Harman said.
lasting memories. “I think it’s the farms in the
“I saw this video where the middle that are really see-
big tree, the mom deco- ing their business shrink be-
rates it, and the little tree, cause more people are ei-
the kids get to decorate it,” ther getting their tree from
she said, as her husband, Home Depot — which is
Jason Jimenez, snapped a supporting the big farms
photo of their toddler pos- — or they’re going out to
ing with a tiny tree just his these small farms,” he said.
size. “I think a lot of the angst
Christmas tree farmers about ‘artificial trees are
across the U.S. worry fami- In this November 2018 photo, Casey Grogan, owner of Silver Bells Tree Farm and president of the taking over’ is coming from
lies like Villarreal’s are slowly Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, trims a noble fir at his 400-acre Christmas tree farm these mid-sized farms.”
dwindling. Artificial trees, in Silverton, Ore. To fourth-generation tree
once crude imitations of Associated Press farmer Casey Grogan, that
an evergreen, are now so the benefits of a real ev- generation of customers, nience, allergens and fire angst is as real as the tow-
realistic that it’s hard to tell ergreen. The campaign, said Marsha Gray, execu- safety, he said. ering noble and Nordmann
they are fakes even though called “It’s Christmas. Keep tive director of the Christ- “We’re seeing a trend firs he grows at Silver Bells
many are conveniently It Real!,” is funded by a 15- mas Tree Promotion Board, where consumers want Tree Farm in Silverton, Ore-
pre-strung with lights and cent fee that tree farmers based in Michigan. to set their tree up over gon. Oregon is the nation’s
can fold up for storage at pay for each tree they har- “The target we’re talking Thanksgiving weekend and No. 1 producer of Christ-
the push of a button. vest. It’s a modern-day at- about right now is millen- leave it up all the way un- mas trees, yet Grogan says
Between 75 and 80 percent tempt at such famous ag- nials: first house, first baby. til after New Year’s.” That’s he has watched about
of Americans who have a ricultural ad campaigns as That’s kind of the decision- safer with an artificial tree, half the fellow tree farmers
Christmas tree now have “Got Milk?” and “Beef. It’s making time,” she said, Harman said. around him go out of busi-
an artificial one, and the $1 What’s For Dinner.” adding that the videos Denise Shackleton got a ness in the past decade.
billion market for fake trees A series of short movies on show families cutting their real tree each season be- A seedling takes eight to 10
is growing at about 4 per- Instagram and Facebook own trees and buying pre- fore switching to an artifi- years to grow to maturity,
cent a year — even though follow real families as they cut trees from lots. cial one. On a recent day, and it’s difficult to predict
they can be reused again hunt for the perfect tree, It’s impossible to know ex- she was at an artificial tree demand years out, he said.
and again. cut it down and decorate it. actly how many real Christ- outlet store in Burlingame, He harvested about half as
To combat this trend, The target audience is the mas trees are sold each California, shopping for a many trees this year as he
Christmas tree farmers “millennial mom” because year because there is no new tree for herself and did a decade ago, and
have joined forces as the tree farmers are increasing- central clearinghouse or one for her daughter. with every new seedling he
Christmas Tree Promotion ly worried that young adults agency collecting that in- “No one got as excited plants this season, he knows
Board and are running a starting their own family tra- formation. But the National about a real tree as me, he’s taking a gamble that
social media ad campaign ditions will opt for an artifi- Christmas Tree Association but it was just too much the demand will still be
this holiday season to tout cial tree, costing farmers a estimates about 25 million work to put the real tree on there in 2028.q
evergreens are harvested
each year — and presum-
ably, most of those are sold.
Americans buy about 10
million artificial trees each
year, said Thomas “Mac”
Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill,
the leading retailer of artifi-
cial Christmas trees. Har-
man is also the president
of the American Christmas
Tree Association, which
does not disclose its mem-
bership but raised $70,000
in donations in 2016 for its
work, which includes tout- In this November 2018 photo, Felipe Delgado, an employee at
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, photo, a salesperson displays the ing artificial trees. Silver Bells Tree Farm in Silverton, Ore., loads Christmas trees
price tag of an artificial Christmas tree at the Balsam Hill Outlet onto a conveyor belt and into a semi-trailer for transport to Los
store in Burlingame, Calif. Most people buying ar- Angeles and San Diego, where they will be sold at tree lots.
Associated Press tificial trees cite conve- Associated Press