Friday, December 25, 2020
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Christmas tree growers see solid year as demand rises
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Demand for Christmas trees
noticeably increased during the
2020 marketing season, similar to
other seasonal products such as fire-
works and pumpkins.
“People are spending more time
at home,” Bob Schaefer, general
manager of Noble Mountain Tree
Farm in Salem, Ore., said.
Despite reports of a tree short-
age, Schaefer said
the industry has
actually brought
supplies
back
into balance with
demand after a pro-
longed surplus that
depressed prices in
Bob
the early 2010s.
Schaefer
The
percep-
tion of scarcity
may have been created by some
U-Cut farms running out of trees
early, but that’s not reflective of an
industry-wide problem, he said. “It
doesn’t mean there aren’t people
down the road with trees available.”
Varying
coronavirus-related
restrictions on retailers in Califor-
nia — a major Christmas tree mar-
ket — cost Noble Mountain Tree
Farm some customers, but the com-
pany was able to compensate with
increased sales to other areas, he
said.
Extravagantly priced Christmas
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
Christmas trees are loaded onto
a truck by workers at Noble
Mountain Tree Farm near Sa-
lem, Ore.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
Christmas trees grow at Drake’s Crossing Nursery near Silverton,
Ore. Growers report that good demand has resulted in higher prices.
trees sold by overseas retailers hav-
en’t resulted in a windfall for Ore-
gon farmers, who say wholesale
prices have risen only modestly.
While “out of sight” prices
reportedly charged in some Asian
markets may be attributed to “price
gouging,” farmers say they’ve
avoided such exploitative tactics,
regardless of whether Christmas
trees are sold to exporters.
“We charge the same price to
them as we do to Joe Blow down
the street,” Schaefer said.
Stroda Brothers Farm only
slightly increased its wholesale
prices this year because the com-
pany was wary of charging more
than the market would bear, said
Kirk Stroda, co-owner of the Mon-
roe, Ore., operation.
“If the retailers don’t make any
money, that means we don’t make
any money,” he said.
The isolation and stress of
the coronavirus pandemic likely
boosted the appeal of Christmas
trees, with an industry-commis-
sioned survey finding that 39% of
consumers were more likely to buy
a real tree for their family this year.
More than three-quarters of the
surveyed consumers also described
Christmas trees as “special” and an
“experience” rather than a product,
according to the Christmas Tree
Promotion Board, which raises
money for industry research and
marketing.
“With the year we just had,
everyone is needing some feel-good
tradition,” said Kari Puffer, exec-
utive director of the Pacific North-
west Christmas Tree Association.
Another trend that farmers
noticed in 2020 was that consum-
ers began buying Christmas trees
before the usual start of the mar-
keting season after Thanksgiv-
ing. Whether the earlier and stron-
ger demand for their product will
outlast the coronavirus pandemic
remains to be seen, though.
“It’s hard to say if this year was
just an anomaly or the new normal,”
said Casey Grogan of Silver Bells
Tree Farm near Silverton, Ore.
Though the farm has seen high
interest from exporters, reports of
high overseas prices aren’t likely to
convince growers to invest heavily
in this market, Grogan said.
The detection of a pest by foreign
regulators can result in the rejection
of an entire load of Christmas trees,
which is “not all that uncommon”
and thus seen as an oversized risk
by farmers, he said.
“If you can sell a tree domesti-
cally, you’re going to do that,” he
said.
The crop’s increased popularity
and tight supplies aren’t likely to
spur another round of over-plant-
ing because the region’s agriculture
industry has changed over the past
couple of decades, farmers say.
“People are cognizant and
understanding of not putting them-
selves in that predicament,” said
Puffer.
In the early 2000s, landown-
ers with spare 5- to 10-acre fields
planted Christmas trees specula-
tively but then lacked a sales out-
let when they reached maturity, said
Stroda.
Once the crop was ready to har-
vest, the growers sold their trees
at steep discounts that affected the
entire industry, he said. “I think
that’s what really killed the market
before.”
Farmers who were burned by
experience are unlikely to repeat
the mistake, while others have also
learned from that history, Stroda
said. “If you don’t have a market,
don’t plant extra trees.”
Christmas trees must also com-
pete for acreage with other crops,
such as hemp, hazelnuts, blueber-
ries and wine grapes, which have
become more common in Oregon,
said Jason Hupp of Drake’s Cross-
ing Nursery near Silverton, Ore.
Rural Oregon airport expansion clears legal hurdle
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Farmland conservation
advocates have failed to con-
vince an Oregon land use
board to block a controver-
sial rural airport expansion
plan but vow to continue
fighting the project.
The state’s Land Use
Board of Appeals has dis-
missed objections against a
planned runway extension
and other improvements to
the Aurora State Airport,
which 1,000 Friends of Ore-
gon and other critics claim
will urbanize an agricultural
area.
Opponents of the project
may still decide to challenge
LUBA’s decision before the
Oregon Court of Appeals or
move forward with a parallel
lawsuit against the expansion
project in Marion County
Circuit Court.
According to LUBA, the
Oregon Department of Avia-
tion wasn’t required to inde-
pendently analyze the airport
project’s compliance with
statewide land use planning
goals as long as the expan-
sion followed Marion Coun-
ty’s comprehensive plan.
“Requiring a separate
determination of compliance
with both the comprehensive
plan and the goals would cre-
ate an uncoordinated regula-
tory scheme that could apply
different standards to identi-
cal issues,” LUBA said.
The airport’s expansion
is not incompatible with
Marion County’s agricul-
tural lands policies because
it’s not clear that the project
plan calls for improvements
that would extend outside the
“public” zone and into the
“exclusive farm use” zone,
the ruling said.
About 55 acres proposed
for acquisition by the airport
would remain farmland even
though they’d be included in
a runway protection zone,
and it’s “just speculation”
that other components would
be located on farmland,
LUBA said.
LUBA also rejected the
argument that the airport
expansion will significantly
affect land use because
the project plan “does not
approve or authorize any
development” and does “not
change the status quo,” the
ruling said.
Andrew Mulkey, attorney
for 1,000 Friends of Ore-
gon, said the airport’s pre-
ferred alternative for expan-
sion clearly shows that new
construction would occur
beyond a road that separates
the public zone from the
farm zone.
“I think that LUBA’s
interpretation is not sup-
ported by the documents in
the record,” he said.
If the project’s oppo-
nents decide against appeal-
ing LUBA’s decision —
or it’s upheld on appeal
— they’d then proceed with
a lawsuit in Marion County
that alleges the public pro-
cess for the airport expan-
sion plan violated the state’s
Administrative Procedures
Act, Mulkey said.
The Aurora Airport
Improvement
Associa-
tion, a group of business
that supports the expansion,
is pleased that LUBA has
made clear the project com-
plies with all state and local
land use rules, said Wendie
Kellington, its attorney.
“Too bad it took so much
time and money to estab-
lish,” Kellington said.
Opponents have relied
on a “false narrative” that
the runway extension would
spill onto farmland, while
the runway protection zone
would actually ensure the
land remained agricul-
tural in perpetuity, she said.
“That’s completely consis-
tent with EFU zoning.”
A utility facility that may
have been placed on farm-
land has likely been rendered
obsolete by improvements
to aviation technology, Kel-
lington said. “That’s not
even going to happen.”
Less mess, fuss for Asian
giant hornet trappers next year
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Volunteers trapping for
Asian giant hornets next year
won’t be asked to mail in all
the insects they catch, Wash-
ington State Department of
Agriculture spokeswoman
Karla Salp said.
The department has exam-
ined thousands of captured
specimens and found 1.5%
were bees. The department
was worried that the traps,
baited with
a sweet liq-
uid mix-
ture, would
attract and
drown
a
higher per-
centage of
pollinators.
Thou-
sand of col-
l e c t i o n s Karla Salp/WSDA
still must An Asian
be exam- giant hornet
ined, but trap in a tree.
the depart-
ment is satis-
fied the traps aren’t a threat to
the bees that hornet trappers
are trying to protect.
“The point of having peo-
ple mail in everything was to
make sure the traps weren’t
having unintended conse-
quences,” Salp said. “We’re
not killing off a lot of bees
with these traps, which was
our main concern.”
Hundreds of people
responded to the department’s
call last summer to make and
hang traps baited with orange
juice and rice cooking wine.
One volunteer caught an
Asian giant hornet, and many
faithfully submitted what they
collected each week, either by
mail or in drop boxes.
The collateral catch
included moths, fruit flies,
paper wasps, yellow jackets
and spotted wing drosophila,
an invasive pest that damages
fruit. The department also
reported detecting for the first
time in the U.S. a parasitoid
wasp, Leptopilina japonia,
that preys on spotted wing
drosophila. One was found
in British Columbia last year,
according to the department.
Next year, trappers will
be asked to report suspected
Asian giant hornets. The rest,
though, can be tossed out.
Salp said she expects more
people will set traps next year,
knowing they won’t be asked
to mail or take to drop boxes
insect remains.
“It’s amazing the level of
commitment people had,” she
said. “But I think it’ll increase
the level of participation and
decrease the level of drop-
ping out. It’s going to make it
simpler.”
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Next week we bid farewell and good riddance to 2020.
Usually at this time we are called to reflect on the past 12 months. But who wants
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difficult times. Capital Press reporters have been on
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about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact
on agriculture — the government regulations,
the changes in the commodity markets and the
disruptions in the supply chain.
In the aftermath of this summer’s terrible fires, we
published more than 100 stories reporting the causes
and effects. We highlighted the stories of everyday people who became heroes for
helping their friends and strangers.
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