The Nature of Christmas Trees
By Chelsea Clarke Sawyer, Communications Coordinator
Last year, I counted the rings on our freshly cut Christmas tree and found 11, which I learned was a pretty standard age for a Christmas tree. The average tree is cut at age 10-15, and it turns out that’s not just 10-15 years of waiting for a tree to grow, it’s 10-15 years of active
care — but we rarely consider what it takes to get the trees to this point, their ecology, or what becomes of them after their brief time in our homes.
Most Christmas tree growers start with three- to five year-old seedlings from specialist nurseries, then grow them in the ground for another seven to ten years, but a few start their own transplants from seed. And even though we usually think of trees as self-sufficient, the saplings are a little needy. They can’t tolerate drought, but they don’t like soggy soil either. They’re evolved to germinate on a sparse forest floor, so they don’t compete well against the thick weeds and grass in farm fields for sunlight, water, space, and nutrients. Many tree farmers use a combination of herbicides, mowing, and sometimes even sheep to control weeds. The trees are also susceptible to disease and pests, and to deer browse in hard winters. If there’s a spring frost after the trees have started to put out new growth, those new twigs can die and the tree — and the farmer — lose out on a whole year’s worth of growth.
Christmas trees also don’t grow in those perfectly symmetrical cone shapes all by themselves. Each summer, growers shear the trees to tame the wild new growth into a classic Christmas tree shape. This is done with hand tools, one tree at a time.
These days most Vermont tree farms grow a combination of Balsam Fir, Fraser Fir, and sometimes Canaan Fir, a subspecies of Balsam. But that hasn’t always been the case — in the past, White Pine, Scotch Pine, and White Spruce were popular Christmas tree species. While all three of the fir species are from the Eastern U.S., only Balsam is native to Vermont. Fraser Fir is from the Southern Appalachians, while Canaan Fir comes from the Pennsylvania/ Ohio/West Virginia area. Each has slightly different soil and moisture preferences and bud break timing, so having a mixture helps ensure there are trees that are a good fit for different areas of a farm, and that at least some trees do well
even in rainy, dry, or unusually cold years.
When harvest season arrives, cut-your-own farms welcome customers into their fields for a three-week frenzy of tagging, cutting, shaking, wrapping, loading, wreath buying, and cocoa-drinking. Meanwhile, other farms cut and load truckfuls of trees and deliver them to tree lots down the eastern seaboard.
But what happens when the holidays are over? Christmas trees can be chipped into mulch for gardens (this is usually what happens to trees picked up by municipal curbside programs, non-profits, schools, and scouts) or composted, both of which are sustainable options. There are also a few more interesting possibilities. If you live in a place that uses Christmas trees for erosion control, shoreline stabilization, or river restoration you can donate your tree to one of these efforts. If you have a yard, trees make great winter shelter for birds and you can “redecorate” them with suet, seeds, or fruit. Finally, if you know someone who has goats, ask if you can give them a post-holiday snack — goats love to nibble on old Christmas trees!
Note: please do NOT bring your tree to NBNC when you are finished with it. We are no longer the drop-off point for any tree collection efforts.
