Capital Press: Growers tout benefits of real Christmas trees
Filed under: Earth 911 - November 23, 2007
Industry promotes environmental superiority, quality over fake trees
Elizabeth Larson
Capital Press
Friday, November 23, 2007
Christmas trees are loaded for shipment to retail stores and wholesale outlets at the Bordiers Nursery near Escondido. This nursery escaped damage in the recent wildfires in north San Diego County.
‘Tis the season for Christmas tree farmers to take their produce to market and tree farmers are emphasizing their industry’s eco-friendliness as concerns about fake trees and what they’re made of mount.
Sam Minturn, executive director of the California Christmas Tree Association, said that the Christmas tree season officially kicks off the day after Thanksgiving.
Last year, the association recorded its members sold 2.8 million trees, with prices expected to go up marginally this year - about 5 to 10 percent - due to gas prices, Minturn said.
The big concern for tree growers is fake Christmas trees, 85 percent of which come from China, Minturn said. The concern, at least with some of the older trees, is that they contain lead.
The association’s website, www.cachristmas.com, explores the issues of real versus fake trees, Minturn said. The site includes links to articles, including one on a Swedish study that says natural trees are five times more environmentally compatible than plastic trees.
In addition, the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Growers Association is running a promotional campaign to help target consumers in California, a major market for trees grown on Pacific Northwest tree farms.
Rick Dungey of the National Christmas Tree Association said his group’s website, www.christmastree.org, uses a chart to compare real versus fake trees.
“The problem is there is a lot of really confusing information and mixed messages out there and most of it comes from the fake tree people,” Dungey said. “Somebody told me they got a fake tree and on the packaging it says ‘better for the environment because you don’t have to cut a tree down.’ It comes in a cardboard box. That’s a mixed message.”
So, this year, they’re highlighting the issue.
“As an industry, the farmers and the retailers are involved too,” Dungey said. “Let’s raise our voices a little bit louder.”
Dungey explained that real Christmas trees come from farms, not forests. Yet, the fake tree industry has been trying to convince the general public that they’re saving pristine forests and that it is bad to cut down trees. That is at best a half-truth and at worst a flat-out lie, Dungey said.
Real Christmas trees also have the support of environmental groups, Dungey said.
“Even the tree huggers themselves - from Arbor Day Foundation to Earth 911 - have been partners of ours for a long time in promoting recycling,” Dungey said. “Almost every environmental group has said it is better to use a natural product over a manufactured product, and that’s what it really boils down to. Do you want to buy a natural, biodegradable product grown by a farmer here in North America or do you want a synthetic, manufactured, nonbiodegradable product made in a Chinese factory?”
Minturn said this is also the time of year when television stations like to burn a Christmas tree to show how improperly lighted trees can start a fire.
It’s enough to make a Christmas tree grower wince.
“They want to promote safety and all they promote is ‘don’t burn a tree,’” Minturn said.
What these demonstrations fail to explain, said Minturn, is that artificial trees burn also.
He pointed to a favorite clip on the National Christmas Tree website, where they show “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in which Leno plays a clip of a tree-burning demonstration where, to get the real tree to light, they had to douse it with gasoline.
The National Christmas Tree Association reports that a National Fire Protection Association report found that Christmas trees - real or fake - are ignited in less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all home fires.
Consumers aren’t just interested in real trees, but in potted Christmas trees that can be replanted after the holidays, Minturn said.
“It’s a very difficult job, I would say, to do it successfully,” Minturn said of growing container trees.
Yet some of their growers are making it work and finding increased market share.
Minturn said he also gets a few calls every year from consumers looking for organic Christmas trees, which one association member grows.
Dungey said, environmentally, real Christmas trees are the best option.
“We have got to make sure that all of the facts and truths are out there and people are not confused and misled anymore,” he said. “The problem is the reason that they are misled again is the fake tree people have been telling them these half-truths and lies for so many years. Once people realize all of the facts, we have a clear-cut victory.”
Elizabeth Larson is based in Lucerne. E-mail elarson@capitalpress.com.