Seeking a fresh start

People like Danny Barney and Gary Chastagner stay in touch this time of year, comparing notes on how the battle is going.

The two are university researchers who are both trying to hold the line against a common foe: artificial Christmas trees. Their focus is on producing the ideal fresh Christmas tree, which would help tree growers in this part of the country.

The two researchers, one in Sandpoint with the University of Idaho and the other in Puyallup with Washington State University, know that live Christmas trees have seen better days.

Since 1986 the U.S. population has grown by about 50 million people, but in the same time the number of live trees cut and sold has fallen from 36 million each year to about 27 million.

“Clearly, the market growth has been with the artificial tree industry,” said Chastagner, a plant pathologist with the WSU extension office in Puyallup who’s known widely as “Mr. Christmas Tree.”

Researchers around the world turn to Chastagner to discuss ideas on seed germination or other methods of devising a better tree, said Barney, a UI horticulture professor who heads that school’s research and extension center in Sandpoint.

They and others supported by funds from wholesale tree growers don’t believe they will ever develop the perfect Christmas tree. But they’re convinced they can breed trees that last longer, stay fresher and smell more Christmasy than what’s now available.

Barney researches which varieties of trees grow best and fastest in the Inland Northwest — an area with lower Christmas tree production than many other parts of the country.

Far more Christmas tree farms can be found west of the Cascades, along the wetter Interstate 5 corridor. Working with tree farmers there, Chastagner focuses on developing improved versions of conifers that smell fresher and remain greener after being harvested and sent to retail lots.

Both agree that there is no “Great Green Hope” — a perfect variety of tree that will please all customers. But they’ve found some populations of firs that hold up better than others, said Chastagner. Both Barney and Chastagner spend much of their time working with Noble and Fraser firs, two conifers that retain moisture well and lose fewer needles once placed inside a home or shopping mall.

Both also are focusing on identifying more than two or three types of conifers for area farmers to grow, on the theory that diversity of choice always pays dividends.

Barney’s latest research includes studies of the growth rates of Concolor and Grand firs, two varieties of conifers that are not natural to this area but grow reasonably well in North Idaho and parts of northeast Washington.

“Consumer tastes are always changing,” Barney said. “Scotch pine used to be the main choice, but it’s not anymore. To be competitive, growers have to find the cutting edge.”

Chastagner said the challenge is similar to what American car makers face from consumers who buy non-U.S. vehicles.

“It takes just one time that a consumer buys a fresh tree and, if it dries up and loses needles, what are the chances they’ll buy another fresh tree next year?”

“Like the auto industry,” added Chastagner, “we have to increase the quality, provide consumers more choice and help growers deliver those (products).”

Jim Storms, president of the Inland Empire Christmas Tree Association, said his group represents nearly 50 growers across Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana. That number has held steady for the past 10 years.

As the Christmas tree market has changed, Storms said the regional growers have divided into two camps: wholesalers who sell to retailers, like Wal-Mart or direct retail lot operators; and “grow-and-cut” farms that give residents a chance to come out, select a fresh tree, and enjoy the experience.

“I like to say I’m selling the experience and giving away the trees,” said Storms, who runs a grow-and-cut farm near Garfield, Wash., on the Palouse.

The growth he’s seen has been in the number of “you-cut” farms. Area wholesale tree farmers are moving more toward growing nursery stock conifers, which provides a faster return on investment because they can sell younger trees and replant more often, he said.

Retailers this year are hoping fresh Christmas tree sales hold up to last year’s total of roughly 27 million. The National Christmas Tree Association is promoting fresh tree sales through several marketing efforts, including a “trees for U.S. troops” campaign expected to send more than 3,000 trees overseas.

Prices are expected to stay close to last year’s levels, or slightly lower, according to industry surveys.

Wal-Mart, one of the larger retailers selling recently harvested, fresh trees, charges about $28 for Grand firs at Spokane-area stores; it’s charging close to $40 for the denser, more fragrant Noble firs.

Storms said area “grow-and-cut” farms sell their fresh trees for prices that vary widely. Some sell smaller trees for about $20 and up. Larger trees can command as much as $50 to $60, he said.

For his own business, “I figure how much time it takes to grow that tree,” he said. He walks his farm and blue-tags each tree with a price, based on how long it’s taken to grow and on the density of its branches.

Storms stays in contact with researchers like Barney, because he knows that the consumer trend is toward the “exotic” evergreens such as the Grand and Subalpine firs.

“Those are trees that have been imported into this area, so when we grow them, we’re doing that outside their native regions,” said Storms.

He’d like to grow the pricier Noble firs but Garfield’s summers are too dry for that variety. The closest he can come is the Subalpine fir, he said.

Chastagner said one thing he does during the holidays is contact tree retailers who’ve purchased trees from regional wholesale farms. He asks questions about their trees: How fresh are the needles, how many have fallen off so far, and if placed in a tree stand, how much water has been taken up?

That helps him gauge the “keepability” factor of different Christmas tree types. Beyond fragrance and freshness, the wetter the branches stay, the less prone to flames the tree is.

The WSU lab in Puyallup looks both at tree branches from its own test group numbering thousands of trees and from tree branches sent by collaborators like Barney and others across the country.

Chastagner hangs the tree branches in a controlled-environment room and observes how well each holds its needles and retains moisture. Branch samples from the same trees are being tested repeatedly over a three-year period.

The one variety that’s tested best for water retention is the Noble fir, he said. Unfortunately, it’s subject to root rot in areas with too much moisture, making its propagation a challenge in lowland areas across western Washington and Oregon.So the Puyallup lab also continues testing a variety of conifers for several traits, including growth rate and resistance to disease and pests.

With research dollars provided by the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Fund, based in Oregon, Chastagner also tries to identify local populations of healthy, fast-growing trees, then gather cones from those trees.

Using traditional horticultural science, the WSU researchers then grow test plots of trees derived from the superior seed stock. The goal is to see if highly valued traits from the original trees can be maintained in other trees in different locations and grown under different circumstances.

The application of science and good genetics leaves Chastagner convinced better Christmas trees are just around the corner: “The future for improved Christmas trees is very good,” he said.

He’s further convinced that Christmas trees are a major contributor to the agriculture industry.

According to the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, this year’s harvest will generate wholesale revenue of about $130 million in Oregon and about $50 million in Washington state.

Oregon has been and continues to be the nation’s major producer, with production of about 7.3 million trees this year, the association says. Washington will rank sixth this year, with 2 million trees. Behind Oregon, the leading other states are North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

About 40 percent of all the Christmas trees harvested annually in the Northwest are shipped to California, said Bryan Ostlund, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association.

Said Chastagner, “This is a good industry to support. It’s important for people in many rural areas that used to rely on timber and have seen changes in that industry.”

Grow-and-cut farms do well in larger cities where there’s enough population to support the business, and also serve as land protectors in the face of urban sprawl, he said.

“It’s a viable way of maintaining farm land in those areas,” he said.