Weather a factor in Christmas tree shortage that hit some farmers this year

Some Christmas tree growers across the country have been experiencing a tree shortage that is the result of a perfect storm of factors -- one of them being the weather this year. The coronavirus pandemic has affected Christmas tree availability in some places. In addition, some bad tree-growing weather conditions that unfolded in key growing regions and economic factors that occurred more than a decade ago have put some of those who grow and sell Christmas trees in a bit of a pinch.

The “perfect” Christmas tree can take eight to 10 years -- even up to 15 years in some cases -- to grow, yet only a few days of unfavorable weather to destroy. Both extremely wet weather and extremely dry weather can have short- and long-term effects on Christmas tree farms, and this year’s hot and dry conditions have not been ideal for some farms across the country.

In cases of drought, certain trees may experience stunted growth, becoming stressed and unusually dry.

Summertime is a very important time of the year for a tree's development, and this summer's weather has greatly impacted the trees at Brown's Tree Farm in Muncy, Pennsylvania, and several other locations across the nation.

"We had minimal growth, just because the trees didn't have enough water," Heather Hinshaw of Brown's Tree Farm told local news station WNEP in an interview. "We look generally in the summer to get at least a foot of growth so when we count our trees in the spring, we know if they are 5 to 6 feet, we can sell them as a 6- to 7-foot tree at the end of the season."

Parts of the central Plains experienced below-average rainfall with pockets of slightly below-average rainfall across the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast, including western and central parts of Pennsylvania which is where Brown’s Tree Farm is located, AccuWeather Meteorologist Carl Erickson explained. Other locations across the nation received even less rainfall. 

“For the months of June, July and August of 2020, precipitation was below average from the interior Northwest, including Washington and Oregon, down through much of the Rocky Mountain states and into western Texas,” Erickson said. Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington are historically among the top Christmas tree-growing states in the country, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

“For the months of June, July and August of 2020 precipitation was significantly below average across Southern California into southern Nevada. Precipitation was below average from the interior Northwest, including Washington and Oregon, much of the Rocky Mountain states and into western Texas,” Erickson said.

The temperatures were also a bit higher than the trees are typically used to at Brown’s Tree Farm — summer temperatures were 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above average across much of Pennsylvania as well as the northern Plains and Upper Midwest eastward across the Great Lakes and into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Western and northeastern parts of North Carolina also ran a couple of degrees warmer than average, according to Erickson. 

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Pair below-average rainfall with warmer air, and that creates a combination that is detrimental to the trees. Then, add in the effects of the Great Recession of 2008, as Jacobs hinted at, and the perfect storm of factors is complete. Due to the tree-growing cycle, the effects of the 2008 growing season began being realized last year because growers that year, according to CNN, planted fewer seedlings.

The Christmas tree industry has been expecting fewer trees as a result of that season, and consumers are mostly unaffected by that shortage although the pandemic and weather issues exacerbated problems for some growers this year.

Lucky for some tree farmers, Mother Nature spared a few areas of the United States from an overly hot, dry summer. 

Bill Jacobs has owned the Owasso Christmas Tree and Berry Farm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 40 years and said his rows of pines are growing just fine. That's all because July brought a lot of summertime rain to Oklahoma.

Central Oklahoma received 150% or more of normal precipitation while eastern Oklahoma received precipitation 200% or more of normal and north-central Oklahoma received precipitation 300% or more of normal, according to NOAA. 

“The farmers here in Oklahoma had a good growing season,” Jacobs said. 

However, Jacobs said the fir trees from North Carolina and Oregon are causing issues nationally. Jacobs was able to get a truck filled with 650 Christmas trees from Oregon, but none of them were taller than 10 feet due to the lack of rain.

“We had a couple smaller farms reach out and ask us to send them trees because they weren’t able to get any because their growers were impacted by the tree shortage that's going on,” Owasso Christmas Tree and Berry Farm employee Jono Horray said. 

So far, Jacobs said this has been the farm's biggest year ever, which could also be contributing to families wanting to feel some sense of normalcy amid coronavirus restrictions. Families are thankful for a holiday tradition to bring some comfort during this challenging year.

“Everything’s kind of weird and we’ve been home for months now, so we might as well change the scenery in the house,” said Karina Buvaylik, who bought a tree from Owasso Christmas Tree and Berry Farm.

Some holiday traditions have been modified or canceled due to COVID-19. At Millennium Park in Chicago, AccuWeather National Reporter Emmy Victor said the Christmas tree was put up, but because of the pandemic, the lighting was streamed virtually for the first time ever. And in New York City, there are reports that some Christmas tree sellers have taken the season off amid the pandemic.

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