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Christmas Trees

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Christmas tree facts and care tips for 2007

Tree maintenance:

Care for your tree as carefully as care for fresh-cut flowers

• Place the tree in a bucket of water out of the sun and wind until you’re ready to install and decorate it.
• Make a fresh cut – a half inch or so – from the tree’s bottom before putting in a water-holding stand. Check water supply daily.

Recycling:

Christmas trees can be recycled and used for chipping/mulch, fish habitat in waterways and lake and river shoreline stabilization.

Facts:

Christmas trees are grown intentionally for your enjoyment, with about 98 percent of trees sold each holiday season grown on farms as a crop.

• Christmas trees are often grown on land unsuitable for other farm crops. By using such fields, tree farmers help to control soil erosion and provide wildlife habitats.
• Some 100,000 people are employed by the Christmas tree industry in the U.S.
• One acre of Christmas trees produces the daily oxygen requirement of 18 people. During photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. For every tree harvested, up to three seedlings are planted in its place.
• Artificial trees contain non-biodegradable plastics and some contain metal toxins such as lead.

Maryland Christmas tree species:

• Douglas fir: medium length, flexible green needles, medium branch stiffness, excellent needle retention
• Fraser fir: medium length, flexible blue-green needles, sturdy branches, pleasing aroma, good needle retention
• Concolor or white fir: long, pliable, light green needles, citrus aroma, excellent needle retention
• Scotch pine: medium to long-length, firm green needles, sturdy branches, good needle retention
• White pine: long-length, soft green needles, soft, flexible branches, good needle retention
• Western white pine: similar in appearance to white pine, but sturdier branches for easier decorating, good needle retention
• Austrian pine: long-length, stiff light-green needles, very sturdy, heavy branches, good needle retention
• Norway spruce: short-length, stiff and sharp light-green needles, sturdy branches, fair to poor needle retention

Source: Maryland Christmas Tree Association; www.marylandchristmastrees.org

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Maryland Christmas Tree Association

For the environment’s sake, “go real,” say Maryland Christmas tree growers.

You can’t get much greener that selecting a real Christmas tree this holiday season, says the Maryland Christmas Tree Association, whose 100-member tree farms throughout the state are reminding consumers that the eco-friendly choice to make is real instead of artificial.

Not only are fake trees not biodegradable, most of them are made from petroleum-based products or even worse, polyvinyl chloride, which scientists say can contain toxic lead. “The U.S. imports more than 9 million plastic Christmas trees from China annually,” according to the National Christmas Tree Association, based in Missouri. Past research uncovered potentially harmful levels of lead dust coming off some older artificial trees, but so far this season, there have been no tree product recalls akin to the bibs, lunchboxes and toys taken off the market due to high lead levels, tree officials said.

But why take a chance? “The best bet is to go real,” said MCTA President Wayne Thomas, a tree farmer, who with wife Marian, welcomes consumers to their Manchester choose and cut farm each Christmas season. For years, families have flocked to the popular farm on Hanover Pike because – like going to a farmer’s market for local produce – they can pick and cut exactly what kind of tree they want. “You can’t get a fresher tree,” Thomas added.

Across Maryland, there are similar choose and cut tree farms and retail lots with Maryland-grown trees that are open to the public. Consumers can visit the tree group’s Web site for a complete listing: www.marylandchristmastrees.org.

The potential problem of lead in fake trees surfaced in 2002 when a University of North Carolina-Asheville professor detected high lead levels in a small sample of artificial trees he studied, while doing research at the school’s Environmental Quality Institute. Without additional grant funding, Professor Richard Maas is no longer testing Christmas trees; however, another environmental public interest group may take on the job and investigate the lead content of artificial Christmas trees.

“It’s on my list to look at,” Carolyn Cox, research director at California’s Center for Environmental Health, said this week when asked if the center would examine artificial Christmas trees for lead, just as it did with baby bibs and toys. The public interest group pressured companies such as Wal-Mart to remove the toxic products from store shelves last summer. Testing fake trees for lead has certainly come up as a research subject, Cox said. “I’ve gotten questions about artificial Christmas trees and we’ve found lead in a variety of products made from vinyl.”

The lead content is not the only problem stemming from Chinese-made artificial Christmas trees. As recently as 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled factory-made Christmas trees from China when it was discovered the products contained foreign insect pests. The recall came after Michigan officials found Chinese-made trees infested with Callidiellum villosulum, also known as the Brown Fir Longhorned Beetle, a wood borer.

Inspectors discovered that the beetle had hitchhiked in the center poles of the trees, some of which were made of unprocessed wood.

Some people believe they’re making an eco-friendly choice by using an artificial Christmas tree since a natural tree isn’t being harvested, said Beth Walterscheidt, a tree grower and president of the National Christmas Tree Association. “But the opposite is true. No matter how many years you use that plastic tree; it will still eventually end up in a landfill. And we’ve learned recently how damaging to the environment it is when PVC breaks down and enters the eco-system.”

Farm-raised, cut Christmas trees, however, are a renewable resource and contain no lead. It is estimated that more than 460 million trees are currently being grown on U.S. farms. Maryland tree farmers are growing some 4 million trees, with about 370,000 harvested each year.

After the holidays, cut trees can be used to stop erosion and provide fish habitat or recycled into chips for landscaping mulch.

 

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