I blame you. Yes, you
Could climate change steal Connecticut’s Christmas tree industry? Experts are racing to stop it
If you ask Lisa Angevine-Bergs, she’ll tell you that Richard Cowles and his team are “going to save Christmas.”
Why would I?
They are both Christmas tree farmers. And Cowles, who is also a plant pathologist and entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, is at the forefront of the race to help the Christmas tree industry adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
They can’t survive a 1.7F increase in global temps since 1850? They survived the previous Holocene warm periods, rights?
Cowles and his colleagues have planted thousands of trees in Connecticut, including rare varieties from overseas, looking for the right attributes. They want trees that look appropriate for Christmas but are capable of withstanding climate extremes that would kill other, more popular tree species.
Cult fearmongering.
For a plant that can take a decade to mature, a Christmas tree is surprisingly susceptible to yearly and even seasonal climate shifts. As those shifts become ever more extreme, with heavy rain followed by extended periods of drought, icy cold winters and too-early springs, Connecticut Christmas tree farmers can find it difficult to keep their crops healthy.
Yup, cult. And I guess they are going to be starting early with their Christmas insanity.
What Connecticut Christmas tree farmers cannot survive is the competition from foreign tree producers and the high cost of living in Connecticut, including the high cost of property taxes on a parcel large enough to grow Christmas trees commercially. They only get one harvest after ten years of effort. The entire market can change between planting and harvesting. But what they really have trouble with are invasive species of bugs, mostly from Asia. I have seen forests all over North America ravaged by various kinds of bugs. And we know with certainty that Chinese agents intentionally import various species in order to harm American agriculture.
The good news for Connecticut tree growers is that thanks to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, the cost of artificial trees is high enough to shift part of the consumer market back to real trees. Despite warming, tree growers should have a pretty good year.
I do think most Christmas tree growers get exempt from regular property tax (AG rates are far less). But it is still hard to do business there. Most tree farms have a staggered rotation so there are always trees ready for that year’s market, but you still have to water in the summer and care for those trees all year long.
All true, but lower taxes is not “free of taxes”. At some point those greedy developers and greedy bureaucrats get together with greedy politicians and force greedy land owners to change their minds about land use. Or they die and their kids sell it off to a developer for a big bag of money instead of working for a living the rest of their lives.
I’ve seen a lot of old people sacrifice their whole lives to keep the family farm (of tree farm) going only for it to be sold by their kids the first chance they got. Too many farm kids have no interest in doing back breaking labor all their lives.
Sweet baby Jesus, they plant and grow Christmas trees in Georgia and South Carolina. Trees survive just fine in Conneticut, but what is killing the Christmas tree industry there is the cost of growing those trees. With insane land prices, the cost benefit of tree farming makes no sense.