People like Danny Barney and Gary Chastagner stay in touch this time of year, comparing notes on how the battle is going.
The two are university researchers who are both trying to hold the line against a common foe: artificial Christmas trees. Their focus is on producing the ideal fresh Christmas tree, which would help tree growers in this part of the country.
The two researchers, one in Sandpoint with the University of Idaho and the other in Puyallup with Washington State University, know that live Christmas trees have seen better days.
Since 1986 the U.S. population has grown by about 50 million people, but in the same time the number of live trees cut and sold has fallen from 36 million each year to about 27 million.
"Clearly, the market growth has been with the artificial tree industry,'' said Chastagner, a plant pathologist with the WSU extension office in Puyallup who's known widely as "Mr. Christmas Tree.''
Researchers around the world turn to Chastagner to discuss ideas on seed germination or other methods of devising a better tree, said Barney, a UI horticulture professor who heads that school's research and extension center in Sandpoint.
They and others supported by funds from wholesale tree growers don't believe they will ever develop the perfect Christmas tree. But they're convinced they can breed trees that last longer, stay fresher and smell more Christmasy than what's now available.
Barney researches which varieties of trees grow best and fastest in the Inland Northwest - an area with lower Christmas tree production than many other parts of the country. Chastagner focuses on developing improved versions of conifers that smell fresher and remain greener after being harvested and sent to retail lots.
Both agree that there is no "Great Green Hope'' - a perfect variety of tree that will please all customers. But they've found some populations of firs that hold up better than others, said Chastagner. Both Barney and Chastagner spend much of their time working with Noble and Fraser firs, two conifers that retain moisture well and lose fewer needles once placed inside a home or shopping mall.
Both also are focusing on identifying more than two or three types of conifers for area farmers to grow, on the theory that diversity of choice always pays dividends.
"Consumer tastes are always changing,'' Barney said. "Scotch pine used to be the main choice, but it's not anymore. To be competitive, growers have to find the cutting edge.''
Jim Storms, president of the Inland Empire Christmas Tree Association, said his group represents nearly 50 growers across Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana. That number has held steady for the past 10 years.
Retailers this year are hoping fresh Christmas tree sales hold up to last year's total of roughly 27 million. The National Christmas Tree Association is promoting fresh tree sales through several marketing efforts, including a "trees for U.S. troops'' campaign expected to send more than 3,000 trees overseas.
Storms stays in contact with researchers like Barney, because he knows that the consumer trend is toward the "exotic'' evergreens such as the Grand and Subalpine firs.
"Those are trees that have been imported into this area, so when we grow them, we're doing that outside their native regions,'' said Storms.
He'd like to grow the pricier Noble firs but Garfield's summers are too dry for that variety. The closest he can come is the Subalpine fir, he said.
According to the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, this year's harvest will generate wholesale revenue of about $130 million in Oregon and about $50 million in Washington state.
Oregon has been and continues to be the nation's major producer, with production of about 7.3 million trees this year, the association says. Washington will rank sixth this year, with 2 million trees. Behind Oregon, the leading other states are North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
About 40 percent of all the Christmas trees harvested annually in the Northwest are shipped to California, said Bryan Ostlund, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association.
Said Chastagner, "This is a good industry to support. It's important for people in many rural areas that used to rely on timber and have seen changes in that industry.''
Grow-and-cut farms do well in larger cities where there's enough population to support the business, and also serve as land protectors in the face of urban sprawl, he said.
"It's a viable way of maintaining farm land in those areas,'' he said.Minneapolis Star Tribune
