Christmas Tree Story Archives - Page 2 of 2 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Think Safety With Fresh Cut Trees In Your Home

With the Christmas holiday season, many families love the tradition of selecting a free tree for their home. But that comes with some additional work and maintenance.

Eric Douglas spoke with West Virginia University Extension Service Forest Resources Specialist Dave McGill to find out what you and your family can do to safely enjoy your tree all season long.

Douglas: Where does the Christmas tree farming industry in West Virginia stand now?

McGill: Over time, the number of farms has decreased, but the state of the Christmas Tree Growers Association is actually strong. There’s always a great demand for these trees. And people will sell out of the trees that they have available. Even this year someone was calling about trying to get some wholesale trees. And there was just no one selling wholesale because they’re holding them for their “choose and cut” operations where people select the tree they want and cut it down themselves.

That’s the main thing. People are in this industry to make money, but there’s a huge intrinsic value in growing Christmas trees. There’s a lot of maintenance, there’s a lot of thinking about these products out there that take seven, eight, sometimes nine years to produce. But when families come in with their kids and buy these trees, the kids are wide-eyed and fascinated with looking around and using a saw to cut a tree down and bring it home and put it up.

Some of these growers have been around a long time, and then they see these children grow up and then bring their children.

Douglas: Let’s talk about those safety, the safety things or the safety aspects of bringing a live tree into your home. What do you need to know to enjoy the tree and keep your home safe?

McGill: So the first thing people think about with trees is fire, right? We see forests burn up all the time. We know trees burn and we know coniferous trees, these trees with resins that are so beautifully shaped, they burn well. But if you plan it right, you can guard against any kind of hazards like that.

One of the main things is don’t let fire or dryness get into your tree. Start out with a fresh tree, so that’s why choose and cut is so good, because you know how fresh it is. Sometimes you go there and the trees have been cut. During the active season, there’s a lot of turnover, so they cut some trees and bring them in. Maybe one will sit there a couple days, but even that would be okay, because of the temperature. It’s very cool, with a low loss of moisture right now. The other recommendation is always make a fresh cut on the bottom and to get some of those plugged up resin canals out of the way to get a flow of fluid of water from your stand, which you always want to keep filled with water up to keep it moist.

Douglas: Do you need to add anything to the water? Is it just water?

McGill: There are products you can get to add to the water. Some people swear by those. I have done both. If you keep it watered, and then keep really flammable materials away from it. You don’t want to put a whole bunch of paper decorations around the tree where it might make a ladder from some kind of heat source into the tree.

At the beginning, it really sucks up water and then as it gets older, it kind of sucks less water. By about that time, you probably want to get it out on the street.

Douglas: What’s the ideal time if you’re planning to bring in a fresh tree?

McGill: A lot depends on one of the things we didn’t talk about. Different species have different abilities to retain their needles — six weeks to seven weeks. You’ll want to have it outside because even though it’s kind of still okay, you know, the leaves will start to fall off. And you don’t want those all around the house.

Douglas: I guess the short version of that is any of (the trees) are good from now through the first of the year.

McGill: Yeah, a couple of weeks into the year, it’d be fine.

For more information on fresh Christmas trees, visit the West Virginia Division of Forestry’s website for their Christmas Tree Book.

Amidst Decline, W.Va. Christmas Tree Farms Carry On Traditions

People have been decorating Christmas trees in their homes since the 16th century. It’s a tradition that began in Germany and spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

According to statistics provided by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, about 4.3 million trees are sold in the United States each year and about 20 percent of them come from the Tar Heel state. All of their top growing counties are in the Appalachian mountains.

But in West Virginia, the industry is much smaller and declining. The 2017 Census of Agriculture for West Virginia ranks the Mountain State as 27th in Cultivated Christmas Trees. That same year, West Virginia growers cut nearly 43,000 trees.

Bob Whipkey has been selling Christmas trees since the early 1990s.

Bob Whipkey watching customers at his Christmas tree farm.

“I always enjoy watching the people. You get a lot of families coming out and their kids, everybody’s in a good mood, everybody’s joyful,” he said. “I have families who come out and spend the day — just bring a lunch and spend the day just walking around looking at trees and finally getting [one].”.

Whipkey says he sells 200-300 trees each season over about a two week period beginning the day after Thanksgiving. He converted what he calls unusable farm land on the side of a hill to plant trees. The process takes seven to eight years until the trees are ready for harvest.

Whipkey explained that the time he has to work the hardest is in mid summer when it’s the hottest.

“You have a window [of] about one month to shear all your trees and you have to do it while the trees are new growth or just putting on a new growth,” he said. “The tree will set more buds to make it come in thicker the next year and it shapes the tree.”

Tree farming can be a lucrative business, according to Whipkey, but after more than 30 years, he is winding down his business due to age and health reasons. He said the number of choose and cut tree growers is declining in West Virginia.

Bob Whipkey says he is slowly shutting his tree farm down, due to age and health reasons, but will miss his customers the most.

“We had over 150 growers in the state and we’re down to less than 90 now,” he said. “And choose and cut growers like myself, there’s only about 28-30 of those in the whole state.”

West Virginia has nearly 12 million acres of forested land, but most of that is covered in hardwood, not pine and spruce.

For a lot of people, choosing and cutting your own Christmas tree is a family tradition. Cody Williams is creating a tradition with his own son, based on one he had with his father.

“A couple of years ago, we actually dug up a picture of me and my dad whenever I was probably two or three, but a picture of me and dad cutting down a tree and so I just decided that’s something I definitely wanted to do with my kids,” he said.

Another customer, Sierra Linger, was out at a tree farm recently and said she has a strategy on the best way to find a tree.

“So, I have a thing where when I first get out of the car, I try to pick out the tree that I want before I get to look at them. And then I go see if I’m right. And I did,” she said. “So, this is the very first one that I picked, and I thought it was the prettiest one, the greenest and it smelled the best.”

Sierra said she hopes Christmas tree farms will be around for years.

“I love it. It’s something that I want to continue to do,” she said. “When I get older, get married and have kids, I want to come pick out a tree. It’s a big part of the Christmas tradition and I really love it.”

State Tree to be Lit Tuesday at the Capitol

West Virginia’s annual Joyful Night celebration and tree lighting ceremony will be held Tuesday evening at the state capitol in Charleston.

The governor’s office announced that the event will begin at 5:30 p.m. on the South Plaza. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and first lady Joanne Jaeger Tomblin will light the state Christmas Tree at 6 p.m., followed by a concert at the Governor’s Mansion.

The Appalachian Children’s Chorus and the Martin Luther King Jr. Male Chorus will perform, along with school bands and musicians. Santa and Mrs. Claus are expected to make an appearance.

The governor asks those planning to attend to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the U.S. Marines’ Toys for Tots campaign. The evening will include a reception for Gold Star families, military members and first responders.

Trees Selected for W.Va. Capitol Holiday Displays

A tree that had grown too big at a home in Randolph County is coming to West Virginia’s state Capitol for a holiday display.

The 30-foot blue spruce has been in the front yard of Ed and Ginny Dumire’s Beverly home for more than two decades. The couple donated it for public viewing at the Capitol complex in Charleston.

State Department of Administration spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown says the tree will be on display at the north fountain at the Capitol this holiday season. Another tree donated from a South Charleston church will adorn the Capitol’s south side, and a third tree from Fayette County will go up at the governor’s mansion.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will lead a lighting ceremony Tuesday night as part of the annual Joyful Night celebration.

W.Va. to Convert Christmas Trees to Fish Habitat

That Christmas tree adding holiday flair to your living room could become a condo for fish in a West Virginia lake.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Natural Resources will host their 10th annual Christmas tree recycling event Jan. 3 at the Capitol Market in downtown Charleston.

Over the years, thousands of live trees have been collected and placed in lakes across the state to improve fish habitat. This year, trees will be placed in Beech Fork, East Lynn, Stonewall Jackson, Sutton and Tygart lakes.

To be accepted, all decorations must be removed from the trees, including ornaments, tinsel and stands.