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What is the environmental
story behind Christmas trees? As we examine our personal
conduct on the planet, we can reasonably ask what impact
does carrying on with this tradition have on the land, and
is this something we can enjoy guilt free.
 While
we so often hear of battles lost on the environmental front,
there is good news here that is truly welcome. To understand
the current state of the environmental impact we need to
look at the Christmas tree industry as it now stands.
Nowadays the tradition of going
to the woods to bring home a tree for Christmas is really
just a nostalgic reminder. All the Christmas trees being
commercially produced in the United States are now grown
on farms. And on these lands, Christmas trees are a conservation
crop. By replacing annual crops require plowing, discing,
and harrowing each year with Christmas trees, the longer
crop cycle of eight to ten years provides many avenues for
environmental improvements. Growing trees offer many benefits
that help the land rebound and diversify.
Tree
farms are good stewards of the earth
As Christmas trees take root,
we are growing and preserving soils. Many farmlands are
highly depleted of organic matter. Christmas trees are pruned
by hand every summer, and this deposits large quantities
of twigs and needles onto the ground. This combines with
a level of grass and weeds that accumulate over the eight
years or so that it takes a Christmas tree to grow. Mature
roots physically hold the soil against erosion, and later
add more organic matter as the stumps and roots rot. After
a few years of growth the young trees help protect the ground
from what is called impact erosion, which is a result of
the heavy rainfall in Christmas tree producing areas. When
the trees get big enough, the shade they produce helps reduce
soil evaporation, and offers refuge for a remarkable diversity
of wildlife. Small birds probably get the most benefit,
but small rodents and other mammals support populations
of birds of prey. Deer are common and even elk are in some
of the more remote fields, drawn to graze on some of their
preferred foods that grow as weeds between the rows.
 Another
important way Christmas trees impact the environment is
controlling runoff and changing the timing of the release
of water from the soil in a beneficial way. Obviously, when
receiving a deluge of heavy rainfall, land with a humus
layer and tree roots can slow down or even eliminate surface
flows of water runoff and increase the absorption of water
into the earth. And this kind of sustained rainfall happens
with some regularity in the Pacific Northwest. But almost
as important is the way that land with Christmas trees will
more slowly release that water during the dry summer months,
helping to sustain low stream flows and perhaps to some
degree even recharge aquifers.
Christmas
trees provide rural jobs in America
 The
environmental story of Christmas trees is unlike many others.
Christmas tree farming is very labor intensive, by today's
standards, remarkably so. Not only does this mean less equipment
on the land but it generates lots of stable employment in
rural areas. The commitment of Christmas tree growers to
this long term crop provides important and predictable jobs
in a farm sector that has seen far too few in recent years.
People's livelihoods matter, and this product provides an
environmentally sustainable avenue of employment in areas
moving away from the extractive industries of the past.
Maintaining our traditions as
a culture, especially around the holidays, sustains and
comforts us as human beings. Helping the environment is
also a part of being at peace with the earth, which is what
Christmas, and Christmas trees are all about.
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