Morning Sentinel
'Green' pays off for tree growers
Artificial concerns boost sales in Maine
By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 11/26/2007

By BETTY JESPERSEN

Staff writer

The push toward being "green" is extending to Christmas trees in a big way this year: They are natural, recyclable, farm-raised products that do not harm the air and are not made of vinyl and lead.

That is good news for Maine Christmas tree growers since conditions this year have combined to make this one of the best harvests in a decade, growers said.

"We have had adequate rain right along; we had minimal insect problems and the growth and color is excellent," said longtime Farmington tree grower Walter Gooley, owner of Conifers Unlimited. "These were probably the best growing conditions in 10 years."

"This should be a good year," agreed Richard Bradbury, a retired entomologist with the Maine Forest Service who owns Bradbury's Christmas Trees in South China on Deer Hill Road. "Overall, I am seeing sales in the past couple of years go up."

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, growers can expect to see greater sales due to the concerns about the safety of consumer products manufactured overseas in China, the source of 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees.

Posted on the association's Web site (christmastree.org) is a chart contrasting real trees and artificial trees. It's titled "Making an Eco-Friendly Choice: The Environmental Debate Settled."

"I credit the trend to better advertising and to people's concern about the lead content in artificial trees made in China," said Joanne Bond, secretary for the Maine Christmas Tree Association.

"And I think people are getting back to the basics. Families like the look of the traditional trees and like cutting their own trees at the farms. And there is more interest in supporting local agriculture," she said.

In New York, two rainy summers followed by drought have produced a shortage of some Christmas tree varieties, according to published reports.

Christmas trees have shallow root systems and are affected by wet weather that can cause disease while dry weather causes stunted growth and less vibrant evergreens, growers said.

New York state's was a local weather-related situation and nationally, growers are having a great harvest, said Rick Dungey, a spokesman for the Missouri-based association.

There are about 150 members in the Maine Christmas Tree Association with the majority of them small farmers. It is estimated about 100,000 real Christmas trees were sold here last year.

Nationwide, there are approximately 22,000 farms producing Christmas trees on roughly 447,000 acres.

Last year, Americans purchased 28.6 million Christmas trees, down from nearly 33 million in 2005.

The association anticipates between 28 million and 30 million trees will be purchased this year.

In a recent online poll conducted for the national organization, 25 percent of the respondents said they will purchase a real tree in 2007. Eight percent planned to purchase an artificial tree, a number that is flat with figures compiled in 2006.

"Personally, I am not surprised that fewer people are buying a new artificial tree considering some of the health warnings about artificial trees we have seen recently with lead dust and PVC," said Beth Walterscheidt, president of the national Christmas Tree Association.

Manufactured trees are made partially from oil and PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, and earlier research uncovered potentially harmful levels of lead dust coming off some of the older trees, she said.

According to the Association's research, the average family uses an artificial, non-biodegradable tree for only six to nine years before throwing it away.

The U. S. imports more than 9 million plastic Christmas trees with about 85 percent of them manufactured in China. According to the U. S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Census, the U.S. imported $65 million worth of artificial trees from China between January and August, 2006.

Betty Jespersen --778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com

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Razorback of Brunswick, ME
Nov 26, 2007 12:50 PM
That's all well and good except for those of us that have allergies. Let's also hope that no one loses their homes because of a tree drying out and causing a fire. I had to give up having live trees because of our allergies and also the trouble keeping it watered. We use a beautiful artificial tree and represents our same beliefs.

Merry Christmas to all Christians and any other people practicing their religions.report abuse

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