Maine wreath makers get lift California ends embargo on balsam fir products, reopening market

MACHIAS – Tippers in Washington and Hancock counties are taking to the woods to cut balsam fir brush for Christmas wreaths amid some good news from California.

California agricultural officials are lifting an embargo on Maine balsam fir products – opening a lucrative market for the state’s $15 million wreathing industry.

For years, agricultural inspectors in a number of California counties have been opening balsam wreath products from Maine and inspecting them for balsam gall midge – an insect that feeds on developing fir needles, causing the needles to drop off prematurely.

Infestations of the insect are cyclical and the gall midge is found on fir throughout New England, the Maritime Provinces and Wisconsin, but Maine stood out because it ships so many balsam fir products, according to state horticulturist Ann Gibbs.

And it wasn’t uncommon for a Maine wreath company to receive the following notice of violation from the California Department of Agriculture: “There is reasonable cause to believe that this shipment is infested with a pest not known to occur or of limited distribution in California and is prohibited entry.”

Almost every Christmas wreath company in Maine received some of those notices in 1999, when California rejected almost 4,000 Maine balsam fir decorations.

But California officials recently discovered balsam gall midge in a native fir stand in their own state and that has leveled the playing field, Gibbs said.

Gibbs announced last week that California would no longer hold up or embargo Maine wreaths because of the insect.

“Until this announcement, our producers were essentially shut out of the world’s sixth-largest economy,” Gibbs said. “With the discovery of this pest, California officials have changed their policy to hold wreaths and trees from Maine infested with balsam gall midge.”

That’s good news for wreath makers, particularly small companies such as Loon Haven Wreaths in Wesley.

Owner Donna Calcasola said she had only one wreath rejected by California last year, but had been considering changing her brochure to alert customers that she couldn’t ship to that state.

Calcasola started her company more than 10 years ago and has tipped and made wreaths since she was a teen-ager. She said she’s never noticed a gall on a balsam fir tip.

In an interview two years ago, Dick Dearborn, a survey entomologist for the Maine Forest Service, said there is no way for anyone shipping wreaths to make sure they are insect-free short of sterilizing them.

Dearborn said adult midges deposit tiny orange larvae on fir trees in the spring and the larvae feed on the base of developing fir needles, causing the needle tissue to grow around the larvae. That creates the gall, a swelling near the base of the needles, he said.

Galled needles drop from the tree prematurely, thinning the foliage, Dearborn said. Gall midge doesn’t kill a tree, but severe infestations can reduce the aesthetic appeal, making the tree unmarketable and its brush unsuitable for wreaths, he said.

Christmas tree growers can treat for the pest, but that isn’t an option for tippers – many of whom cut brush on paper company land in Washington and Hancock County.

Most Maine-made balsam fir decorations come from Washington and Hancock counties, and Gibbs estimates that Maine produces at least 500,000 pieces a year.