Christmas tree farmers in North Carolina struggle through a challenging season
Christmas tree farmers in North Carolina struggle through a challenging season
In North Carolina, Fraser firs are a popular variety of Christmas trees. People love their signature smell, classic shape and the way the firs hold their needles. The trees are also a crucial economic asset for people in the state’s rural mountain communities, where 20% of the country’s Christmas trees grow.
But raising Fraser firs isn’t for everyone. It’s a year-round job that’s only become harder, in part because of climate change. And this year, Hurricane Helene put farmers to the test when the storm barreled through the region weeks before harvest season.
Dee Clark is one of the farmers who has struggled in the wake of the storm. At his Choose and Cut farm in the mountains of western North Carolina, the white-bearded farmer is kind of like the Santa Claus of Christmas trees. He oversees 400,000 Fraser fir trees at his farm in Pineola.
“It’s a big tradition in North Carolina. You come to the mountains and get a fresh-cut Fraser fir,” Clark said.
Fraser firs are native to Appalachia — and so is Clark. His grandfather was one of the first to start growing Christmas trees commercially. But in the last decade, he said farming has become more challenging.
“To be a farmer anymore, you can’t only just be a good farmer, you have to be a good business person, and it is very hard to combine both,” he said.
The trees take 10 years to grow. So when things go wrong, like the historic floods from Hurricane Helene, the ripple effects can last for years.
“Businesswise, we took a huge hit,” Clark said, reflecting on the impact of the storm. “We estimated our losses in the neighborhood of $3 million.”
A lot of his property was damaged, and flooding and landslides took out some of his seedlings. What’s really keeping Clark up at night, though, is a deadly fungus that he expects to bloom as a result of the floods.
“It’s called Phytophthora,” he said. “It’s a microorganism that attacks the roots and causes the roots to die. And once you get it in your soil, you can’t get it out.”
Phytophthora is fairly common. It kills house plants and other crops too. Justin Whitehill, the director of North Carolina State University’s Christmas Tree Genetics program, said the word is Latin for “plant destroyer.”
“There’s really no solution for those trees that are out there. It’s just going to unfortunately lead to a mortality event for some of those trees,” Whitehill said.
The flood waters probably helped Phytophthora travel through Christmas tree farms, he said.
“What we’re worried about is where that pathogen was able to spread to. Some areas that have never had a problem with Phytophthora may now be more susceptible to it, because the water spread it around to those areas,” he added.
At NC State, Whitehill’s research team has been looking for solutions, including exploring genetic modification and complex grafting techniques for the trees.
“That’s basically editing the DNA of the tree to try to make it more resistant to the pathogen that we’re facing,” he explained.
But those solutions are not here yet. And it’ll be a few years before Christmas tree farmers know how much the fungus has spread.
This year, though, there were still plenty of Fraser fir trees available for Christmas at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville.
Nine-year old Jessa Hager, along with her older brother and parents, was one of the happy customers at the market. She beckoned her family over to one tree.
“Look at that one. It’s beautiful. It’s pretty. It gives me the Christmas feeling,” she squealed. “I want it!”
Her technique worked. Her family left the market with a 6-foot-tall, bouncy Fraser fir tied to the roof rack of their car. On her walk back to the car, Hager had a huge smile.
Nearby, Christmas tree farmers Bob and Ray Hoxit helped other families pick out their trees.
“We’re just blundering around the markets,” Bob said, when asked what he was up to.
The Hoxits are brothers who own their own farm. They’re also a pair of jokers.
The hardest part of growing Fraser firs? “Maintaining your sanity,” Bob said, followed with a hearty chuckle.
The Hoxits said they love growing trees. The tough part is what they can’t control, like the flooding from hurricanes and the existential threat of fungus destroying their crop.
Still, Bob said he remains optimistic, even if that makes him a little naive. At the end of the day, the business is kind of like gambling.
“Farmers are the highest rollers there are in the country. You’re always betting down the road. And so you’re betting that eight or 10 years from now, that somebody will want that tree,” he said with a shrug.
This year, at least, lots of customers wanted his Fraser firs. By the end of the season, he sold out.
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