Tree Farms Are Santa’s Branch Office This Is A Jolly Time Of Year For Growers Of Christmas Trees

Santa Claus - no, no, it’s Stan Clouse - is busy getting ready for Christmas near Elk, Wash.

Clouse is one of the Inland Northwest’s Christmas tree farmers for whom this is a jolly time of year.

He and his wife, Patty, who own Camden Ranch, are what’s known in the trade as “choose-and-cutters.” They sell trees to folks who turn the purchase into a family outing.

Near Elmira, Idaho, (60 miles northeast of Elk as the reindeer flies) Dave Jenkins runs a bigger operation.

Jenkins and Sons Christmas Trees has 160 acres worth of trees, compared to the Clouses’ 15 acres. Jenkins wholesales many of them, selling to dealers who sell at tree lots.

“We’re having a great year,” Jenkins said this week. He was out laboring in the evergreen fields. “We had an early freeze. The trees are going to be in great shape.”

A freeze is important because it makes trees become dormant and less likely to shed their needles.

The vagaries of weather are a concern for Christmas tree growers, just as they are for other farmers. But this is a different kind of farm, no doubt about it.

It can take up to 15 years to grow a crop, said Joan Geiger of the National Christmas Tree Association.

“The average growing cycle is seven years for a tree to reach the retail height of 6 feet,” she said. “The challenge is knowing what kind of tree might be popular down the road. Right now, we see people going back to the shorter needle tree, versus the longer needles.”

The 40-year-old, Wisconsin-based association has 2,000 members. About 25 percent of those are choose-and-cut operations, Geiger said, and their numbers are growing fast.

Clouse started planting Christmas trees in 1987, when he decided to get out of the cattle business and needed something to occupy the alfalfa pasture.

Now, there are 26,000 trees in the ground. Clouse keeps them in the proper conical shape by trimming them every year. It’s a full-time job.

This is the third year that Camden Farms has sold trees. Each sale comes complete with a hayride and a loaned saw.

“It’s more lucrative than cattle,” Clouse said.

Many people in this region get $3 permits and head into the federal forests to cut trees. Nationally, artificial trees offer more competition to tree farmers.

Last year, about 33 million real trees were sold nationwide, compared to 40 million artificial ones.

The industry tries hard to convince people that it’s environmentally OK to cut down a tree for Yuletide decorations.

“People see Christmas trees and they don’t think it’s a farm, they think it’s a forest,” said Geiger. “It’s part of a crop.”

The association encourages recycling of trees by having them turned into mulch after the holidays. Tree growers want to see curbside recycling include trees. Some farms take the “used” trees back for recycling.

One thing growers don’t have to worry about is the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“NAFTA really doesn’t have much affect on the Christmas tree industry,” said Jenkins. “It was not a regulated product to begin with. … And on the Western side of the U.S., there’s not very many trees that come from Canada into the states. Over here, there are more trees going into Canada from the U.S.”

Jenkins isn’t selling trees north of the border this year. He he does ship them south to his own retail lots in Pocatello, Idaho, and Ogden, Utah.

Why not closer to home?

“There’s too many trees around here,” he replied. “It’s too easy for people to go out and cut their own.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HOW TO BRANCH OUT Want to know how to make your Christmas tree last longer? Got a notion to try tree farming? If you have a computer and access to the Internet, you can have your questions answered at the National Christmas Tree Association home page. Here are some factoids you’ll find: 90 percent of Christmas trees are grown on plantations. There are 15,000 Christmas tree farmers, with trees growing on 1 million acres. The six top tree-growing states are Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California and North Carolina. (Washington would probably be seventh, according to an industry spokeswoman.) The best-selling trees nationally: Balsam fir, Douglas fir, Fraser fir, noble fir, Scotch pine, Virginia pine, white pine. “Christmas tree farms stabilize soil, protect water supplies and provide refuge for wildlife while creating scenic green belts.” - Julie Titone

The Christmas Tree Association home page address is: http://www.execpc.com/~ncta