The scent of a balsam fir wafting through a Maine home in December is as much a part of the Christmas tradition as grandma’s homemade sugar cookies or caroling through town.

Even with fuel prices rising and consumers tightening their budgets, a sampling of the state’s Christmas tree growers said Wednesday there was only a slight decrease in sales this year. Most patrons were unwilling to skimp on the family tree, according to growers.

“If they are coming to get a tree, and they always get a 10-foot tree, they are getting a 10-foot tree,” said Joy LaCasce, co-owner of the Finestkind Tree Farm in Dover-Foxcroft. “A lot of people come in and are very proud to tell us that they’ve been coming here for 15 years. We get a lot of locals.”

The Christmas tree industry faces obstacles every season – such as fertilizer costs, weather, length of selling season, fuel prices – and this one was no different, said Jim Corliss, owner of Piper Mountain Christmas Tree Farm in Newburgh. Corliss said his business was down about 5 percent from last year, despite a few extra selling days due to the early Thanksgiving holiday.

Maine growers watched the industry closely this year, as fuel prices and the cost to create a quality product to rival the artificial tree market, rose, said Doug Kell, co-owner of Kelco Industries in Milbridge.

“We were all concerned because of the uncertainty of the economic conditions,” Kell said. “The consumer doesn’t have as much money in his pocket, and it costs more for me to get a load of trees to market.”

Fewer customers took to the fields, cutting their own trees this year, since the heavy snowfall in December made the holiday journey more of a trudge, said LaCasce. Frigid temperatures on the first weekends in December, traditionally the biggest sales days, discouraged patrons from leaving the house, Corliss said. Customers, however, did still buy the precut trees at the retail lot, LaCasce said.

A self-cut tree at Piper Mountain cost $30 this year, up from $28 in 2006. At Finestkind, the cost was $28, a price that has gradually risen for the past four years. The increase in minimum wage and the cost to keep the tractors running contributed to Corliss’ $2 hike, he said. LaCasce said her farm wanted to match the market and make up for rising fertilizer and spray prices.

While sales dipped slightly on Maine’s tree farms and roadside stands, for many companies the mail order service thrived. Piper Mountain ships trees throughout the country, especially to Florida, Arizona and California, and since 2004 the farm’s mail-order business has grown by 50 percent, Corliss said. The increase is in part due to the Internet, he said.

“More and more local people are getting the idea of ordering a wreath or tree for friends or relatives that have Maine roots,” Corliss said. “They like that sweet smell of balsam fir during Christmas time.”

The smell has lured additional business for L.L. Bean in the form of its dozen or so balsam products, including wreaths, full-size evergreens and tabletop trees, according to Laurie Brooks, L.L. Bean spokeswoman. L.L. Bean’s greatest markets for the holiday firs, which come straight from Maine tree farms, are in Florida, the Mid-Atlantic states and New England. Many city folks, particularly from New York, buy full-size trees that are delivered directly to their homes, Brooks said.

Many “want a little piece of Maine coming into their home for the holidays,” she said.

In Maine, though, there always will be families who trek into their own backwoods for a tree and never visit a local farm, Kell said. Others will turn to the artificial evergreens that have become far more sophisticated over the years.

“What the [improved] artificial tree has done is held us at a higher standard,” Kell said. “When people before would get a Charlie Brown tree, and be happy to get it, we now have to provide trees to die for.”

trobbins@bangordailynews.net

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