Christmas tree sales taking root

A trip to a Christmas tree farm is a tradition for hundreds of families across the country this weekend.

"Every year, we come up here the day after Thanksgiving for four to five years now," said Tony Clark.

His daughter Morghan Clark is in charge of finding the perfect tree for her family.

"I’m a professional tree picker," she said.

And for a good reason, she knows exactly what she’s looking for.

"Not a big tree because last year it fell down and broke a lot of ornaments," Morghan said.

Christmas tree farmer Olef Richardson has been growing trees for more than 30 years and ships them throughout the country and Canada, including some Christmas tree lots that have begun to open up in the Tri-Cities area.

He said his wholesale sales are down this year, but he’s encouraged about the individual sales.

"We’ve had enough people up here this morning and looks like it’s going to be a good year," Richardson said.

Tree farmers say they’ve had to increase prices because of gas costs. And they may experience another setback in a few years because of this year’s drought.

However, the trees harvested this year also are showing drought stress.

"You can see signs on the trees where the color isn’t as good as normal. It should be a deep green, and now it’s a yellowish green," said Richardson.

He said the full effects of the drought may not be realized until his newly planted trees reach harvest size in six to 10 years.

"We planted a thousand trees and lost 10, 15, 20 percent," he said, adding that a 3 percent loss is typical.

The National Christmas Tree Association says higher gas prices may help sales this year because most families are expected to stay home.

The association expects 28 million to 30 million trees to be sold this year.

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