Christmas tree growers hopeful > Industry expects brighter holiday after five-year shakedown

PORTLAND — The nation’s Christmas tree growers are looking forward to brighter holiday seasons after a five-year shakedown in which thousands of growers dropped out of the industry.

The remaining growers are in a better position to compete after a glut of trees that sent prices plummeting in past years, said Bob Scott of Kansas, president of the National Christmas Tree Association.

“That’s not all bad,” he said. “It’s the way of survival. Those who are left are going to be in a good position to make money.”

This is the make-or-break weekend for the nation’s Christmas tree growers because most of the 33.5 million families that buy live trees will be shopping around at lots and at farms across the country.

The National Christmas Tree Association estimates 75 percent of U.S. households will have a tree. Of those, about 46 percent will choose live trees, and 54 percent will choose artificial trees.

Artificial trees remain Public Enemy No. 1 for Christmas tree growers, but growers also proved to be their own enemy by planting too many trees in the early 1980s, saturating the market a decade later.

The glut peaked a couple of years ago when some wholesalers unloaded their trees for less than it cost to grow them. Trees appeared in some New England markets at the ultra-low price of five bucks.

The ensuing shakedown saw the number of growers drop from about 15,000 in 1990 to today’s level estimated by Scott to be less than 10,000.

David Barden, president of the Maine Christmas Tree Association, said the nation’s Christmas tree growers are at the tail end of the cycle of overproduction, and things should improve soon.

“I would like to think things are going to get better,” said Barden, who grows trees on 12 acres in St. Albans.

Growing and marketing Christmas trees is harder work than novices realized when they decided to plant trees, often hoping for a quick buck, said Barden. The romance faded when they tried to sell them.

“They say, `I’ll just grow and I don’t have to worry about customers for eight or 10 years,”‘ Barden said. “That’s how we got into our problem of overabundance of trees.”

In Maine, which is 90 percent woods, the number of members of the Maine Christmas Tree Association peaked at more than 200 and its membership now stands at 180, Barden said.

The association representing growers in Mississippi and Louisiana saw its numbers plummet from 600 to 100, Scott said. In Kansas, the numbers have dropped from 150 to 80, he said.

“All of us were disillusioned 20 years ago when everyone, me included, thought you could put a tree in the ground, and then cut it, and make a lot of money,” Scott said.

Farmers like Scott have tried to make buying a live tree into part of the holiday experience.

At Scott’s farm in Wichita, Kansas, he offers kids rides on a horse-drawn wagon and has high school students selling hot chocolate and cider. A train on his property carries Santa Claus.

In the past, Scott has hired skydivers to mark the arrival of the holiday season.

In Maine, Diane Holmes has plastic sleds on hand for parents to pull their kids around, snow permitting, on her choose-and-cut farm in Kennebunk. After picking the perfect tree, customers can warm up inside with hot cider and browse for Christmas ornaments.

Jim Corliss, who has 42 acres of trees in Newburgh, offers Maine-made jellies, maple syrup, candles and wreaths along with trees, which he ships mail-order anywhere in the nation. He has diversified with a retail operation in Hampden.

Corliss said the key to making a comeback for the industry that still sells the same number of live trees as it did 30 years ago is to promote public awareness that trees are good for the environment.

Live trees are grown on farms — not cut from the woods — and trees can be recycled, Corliss said.

“A Christmas tree farm is like a garden,” he said. “No one has any objection to harvesting a garden. And the beauty you get from a tree is sustenance of a different sort than from a carrot or a cabbage.”