How "green" is your Christmas tree?
Christmas trees await harvest near Corvallis, Ore. By Tom Adams KVAL NewsCORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon Christmas trees are a huge business and growers are out to protect that investment. Once again this season, tree farmers are asking consumers: is your tree "green" enough? It turns out a little green tag is helping spread the word. Harvest time It's harvest time at Holiday Tree Farm south of Corvallis. This week is the peak of the season and growers are taking the fight against fake Christmas trees to a whole new level. The big trucks, the shaker machines and helicopters filling the air. It's all a combination for a greener Christmas tree.
Crews are slamming at the Holiday farm to meet shipping quotas. Combining all six tree yards, Holiday will ship out one million Christmas trees this season.
To get more people to buy the real thing, the industry is pushing the environmental benefits of fresh trees over artificial. Several growers hooked up last year to form the Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers in a pilot project. Ubbink says the effort has expanded in 2008.
Holiday co-owner David Schudel says it's a prudent step by Christmas tree growers to get the word out and adds,
It's so busy during the harvest that even 90 year old Hal Schudel can't stay away. He's the founder of Holiday Tree Farms and is supposed to be retired.
Hal says as long as the industry gets the word out, the future for seedlings planted this spring is bright. Oregon is still the national leader in Christmas tree production. It's a $114 million industry, with about 8 million trees shipped out each year.
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"Noble fir, Douglas fir are the largest number, and a little bit of Grand fir as well," explains crew manager Jim Ubbink at Holiday's Beaver Creek yard.
This is the second year for the special tagging system by Northwest tree growers--and they hope to take this program nationwide. Farms that meet standards for lower use of chemicals and less land erosion can attach the tags to their trees.
"One acre of trees actually produces oxygen for 18 people, believe it or not, so we think we're doing the right thing," Schudel says.
"It's in your blood. Once you get into the Christmas tree business--it's there every year. It's something you can't get out of," says Schudel.
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