The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, October 31, 2017, Image 2

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The daily Astorian., October 31, 2017, Page 2A, Image 2

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Newspaper Page Text2A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017 Christmas tree prices expected to rise amid shortages Farmers can’t keep pace with market demand By JONATHAN BACH Statesman Journal SALEM — Americans will pay more for pre-cut Christ- mas trees this year as short- ages deepen from the country’s top two producers, Oregon and North Carolina. Joe Territo sells Oregon trees in San Jose, California. But he’s becoming increas- ingly frustrated with rising costs, from the trees to labor. Territo says the only ﬁ gure going down is proﬁ t. “It seems like every year, it’s harder and harder,” Territo said. He expects to sell 6-foot Noble ﬁ rs for about $75 a piece this season, up from about $69 last year. The problem is one of sup- ply. Christmas tree growers are coming up short as their 2017 harvest enters its critical period, with trees being shipped coast- to-coast and abroad. Around the time of the Great Recession, growers had an oversupply of trees after planting too many in the early 2000s. Subsequent low prices forced many farmers out of the Christmas tree business, leav- ing other growers to tend to the market. But now, with only so many trees to go around, remain- Mateusz Perkowski/ EO Media Group Jason Hupp, whose family owns Hupp Farms near Silverton, examines a Noble fir grown for boughs in 2016. The Hupp family grows nursery conifer seedlings, Christmas trees, boughs and timber. ing farmers can’t keep up with demand — and they might not catch up for years. It can take nine years before some trees are ready to be cut and sold. Oregon top harvester Oregon farms harvest the most trees in the United States, exporting them to places like Asia and California. Trees from North Carolina are gen- erally shipped to states east of the Mississippi River, such as Florida. Casey Grogan is a man- ager at Silver Bells Tree Farm, a few hundred acres outside of Salem. He reck- ons the farm has received 20 times its normal number of customer inquiries. “We just have enough to supply the customers we’ve been supplying, so we’re not able to help them,” Grogan said. But Grogan is optimistic for fellow Oregonians who should be able to ﬁ nd fresh FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TONIGHT WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 56 43 46 ALMANAC 50 38 Clouds and sun with showers around; cool Chilly with rain at times Last Salem 42/59 Newport 46/57 Nov 10 Coos Bay 46/59 First Nov 18 Ontario 31/62 Burns 30/60 Klamath Falls 27/63 Lakeview 26/64 Ashland 39/67 TOMORROW'S TIDES Astoria / Port Docks Time 5:42 a.m. 6:24 p.m. Low 0.9 ft. 0.6 ft. City Baker City Bend Brookings Eugene Ilwaco Klamath Falls Medford Newberg Newport North Bend Hi 59 64 66 59 58 61 70 62 60 64 Today Lo 29 39 47 38 49 27 38 43 46 46 W s s pc s s s s s s s Hi 57 58 60 59 55 63 67 58 57 60 Wed. Lo 31 34 47 42 47 30 41 46 46 46 W s pc s pc sh s s pc pc pc City Olympia Pendleton Portland Roseburg Salem Seaside Spokane Springfi eld Vancouver Yakima Hi 61 62 60 61 62 59 49 59 60 60 Today Lo 42 46 44 43 42 47 35 38 44 36 W s s s s s s pc s s s Hi 55 56 58 58 59 55 50 58 56 62 Wed. Lo 39 42 45 44 44 46 34 43 46 31 W sh c c pc pc sh sh pc c pc TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER NATIONAL CITIES W s s pc sf pc pc c pc sh pc pc pc pc pc pc s pc s r s pc pc pc s s Hi 73 55 47 72 52 47 79 31 87 48 55 79 69 67 81 65 77 55 72 56 52 69 65 54 62 Wed. Lo 55 49 45 38 42 43 55 19 74 45 48 58 57 62 69 57 66 52 52 50 50 48 53 43 54 Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. W pc pc pc pc pc c pc pc t r pc s pc sh pc c c pc pc c c s s sh c The Daily Astorian A man convicted of doz- ens of sex crimes in Clatsop County died Monday in a state prison. Mark Buckner, 56, was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. after complaining minutes earlier to a cell mate at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario that he wasn’t feel- ing well. Prison staff responded to the cell but were unable to resuscitate him. Though Ore- gon State Police investi- gates all inmate deaths, Buck- ner apparently died of natural causes, according to a release from the state Department of Corrections. Following a 2011 trial, Buckner, of Westport, was sentenced to 47 years in prison on 51 counts — including ﬁ ve counts of ﬁ rst-degree sodomy, 20 counts of ﬁ rst-degree sex- ual penetration and one count of ﬁ rst-degree sex abuse. The charges stemmed from years of abuse — more than 1,000 incidents in nine years, accord- ing to prosecutors— against a girl starting when she was in k indergarten in the late 1990s. Mark Buckner DUII • At 9:35 p.m. Friday, Jason Pietrzykowski, 41, of Anacortes, Washington, was arrested by the Seaside Police Department on the 400 block of S. Roosevelt Drive and charged with driving under the inﬂ uence of intoxicants and reckless driving. His blood alcohol content was 0.33 percent. • At 11:45 p.m. Friday, Jamey Shane Wilson, 45, of Astoria, was arrested by the Astoria Police Department on the 100 block of Klaskanine Avenue and charged with DUII and refusing a breath test. • At 2:09 a.m. Saturday, Alysha Ann Satiacum, 29, of Astoria, was arrested by the Warrenton Police Department on the 100 block of N. Main Avenue and charged with DUII, recklessly endanger- ing another person and reck- less driving. She allegedly was driving at a high rate of speed prior to her arrest. • At 1:46 a.m. Sunday, Tomas Aguilar Vidal, 31, of Seaside, was arrested by the Astoria Police Department on U.S. Highway 101 and E. Har- bor Street in Warrenton and charged with DUII and driving without an operator’s license. His blood alcohol content was 0.13 percent. • At 6:12 p.m. Monday, Loree Lipman Sakai, 64, of Portland, was arrested by the Oregon State Police on U.S. Highway 26 and charged with DUII and reckless driving. Her blood alcohol content was 0.13 percent. Assault • At 7:03 a.m. Monday, Brandon L. Harrington, 33, of Astoria, was arrested by the Seaside Police Department on the 1000 block of Avenue I and charged with fourth-degree assault. He allegedly head- butted someone. FLUHRER, James, 84, of Warrenton, died in Warrenton. Caldwell’s Luce-Lay- ton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. PUBLIC MEETINGS WEDNESDAY Warrenton-Hammond School District Finan- cial Committee, noon, district oﬃ ces, 820 S.W. Cedar Ave. Seaside Improvement Commission, 6 p.m., City APPLIANCE AND HOME FURNISHINGS 529 SE MARLIN, WARRENTON 503-861-0929 O VER Mattresses, Furniture 3 A 0 RS & More! Hall, 989 Broadway. Warrenton Town Hall, 7 p.m., on the library levy and city parks, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave. Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Paciﬁ c Way. LOTTERIES PACKAGE DEALS TSOP C LA U Y C O NT Like Hupp Farms in Ore- gon, Barr Evergreens in North Carolina can fulﬁ ll wholesale orders for its existing custom- ers but has to turn away new ones, said owner Rusty Barr. Barr expects to raise prices $2 to $3 for pre-cut Fra- ser ﬁ r trees at his retail outﬁ t. That’s on top of the $60 to $80 they’ve sold for in the past, depending on size. North Carolina harvested an estimated 3.5 million trees in 2016, according to the Paciﬁ c Northwest Christmas Tree Association. The state was followed by Michigan (3 million), Pennsylvania (2.3 million) and Washington (1.5 million). By contrast, Oregon cut down approximately 5.2 mil- lion trees. For Oregon growers, pop- ular Noble ﬁ rs are especially lucrative — but they only grow so fast, often spending nine years in the ground to grow to 6 feet in the Paciﬁ c Northwest. “That’s the Cadillac of the industry,” said Bob Schae- fer, general manager of Noble Mountain Tree Farm. The Salem area wholesaler is mas- sive, usually harvesting about half a million trees a year from the more than 4,000 acres the company grows on in the Wil- lamette Valley. Convicted sex abuser dies in prison Oct. 30, 2017 ELDER, William Charles, 99, of Astoria, died in Astoria. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortu- ary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. APPLIANCE YE Turning away orders DEATHS Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. IN Christmas trees to return until at least 2021 or 2025. ON THE RECORD Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017 Source: Jim Todd, OMSI Hi 70 58 43 52 42 44 72 32 86 44 41 80 70 59 79 58 77 56 52 57 47 58 66 59 61 Baker 29/57 REGIONAL CITIES Tonight's Sky: Capricornus, the sea-goat, stands almost due south at nightfall. Today Lo 49 41 31 38 30 32 54 23 75 32 31 57 60 47 66 43 62 43 38 40 37 42 51 46 44 La Grande 42/54 Roseburg 43/58 Brookings 47/63 Nov 26 John Day 41/58 Bend 39/58 Medford 38/67 UNDER THE SKY High 8.5 ft. Prineville 35/59 Lebanon 40/59 Eugene 38/59 New Pendleton 46/56 The Dalles 42/60 Portland 44/58 SUN AND MOON City Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks Honolulu Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Memphis Miami Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle Washington, DC Periods of rain; breezy in the afternoon Tillamook 47/56 Sunset tonight ........................... 6:03 p.m. Sunrise Wednesday .................... 7:56 a.m. Moonrise today .......................... 4:42 p.m. Moonset today ............................ 3:28 a.m. Time 12:00 p.m. none 50 37 Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs. ASTORIA 46/56 Precipitation Monday ............................................ 0.00" Month to date ................................... 8.93" Normal month to date ....................... 5.70" Year to date .................................... 62.14" Normal year to date ........................ 45.94" Nov 3 SATURDAY REGIONAL WEATHER Astoria through Monday. Temperatures High/low ....................................... 63°/38° Normal high/low ........................... 57°/43° Record high ............................ 68° in 1949 Record low ............................. 28° in 1935 Full 52 40 Some sun, then clouds with showers around Mostly cloudy FRIDAY ﬁ r trees. And there are many u-cut tree farms. “The people that are really gonna suffer from this, I think, are going to be people in Southern California, Ari- zona, Texas, places like that,” he said. Tim O’Connor, execu- tive director of the National Christmas Tree Associa- tion, denies a shortage, but acknowledges, “Supply is tight.” “Everyone who wants a tree will be able to get one,” O’Connor said. Christmas tree farmers aren’t so conﬁ dent. “Right now, there’s a tree shortage. It’s been coming down the line for the last eight or 10 years, or so,” said Jason Hupp, who helps manage Hupp Farms near Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. “So our biggest challenges are having enough trees to sup- ply customers and just getting phone calls after phone calls after phone calls of people desperate for trees that don’t exist,” he said. One recent morning, a heli- copter piloted by Terry Harch- enko swooped over Hupp Farms, snatching up bundles of trees after Raul Sosa, a lone worker clad in high-visibil- ity orange, connected them to a hook on the chopper’s dan- gling line. It’s dangerous work — the hook could swing and strike Sosa — but worker and pilot worked gracefully in concert. “It’s like air ballet. It’s crazy,” Hupp said beforehand. The helicopter dropped the heavy trees in a nearby lot, where other workers pulled away ropes holding them together. Many Hupp Farms trees will head down south to California. Wholesale growers esti- mate they’re raising prices at least 10 percent year-over- year. Growers don’t expect normal harvest levels for HOURS OPEN: MON-FRI 8-6 • SATURDAY 9-5 • SUNDAY 10-4 We Service What We Sell OREGON Monday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 5-2-7-9 4 p.m.: 4-9-8-5 7 p.m.: 0-6-8-3 10 p.m.: 6-8-6-5 Monday’s Lucky Lines: 02-08- 12-15-19-22-27-29 Estimated jackpot: $29,000 Monday’s Megabucks: 12-26- 27-29-31-46 Estimated jackpot: $1.4 million WASHINGTON Monday’s Daily Game: 8-8-6 Monday’s Hit 5: 03-04-19- 22-23 Estimated jackpot: $120,000 The Daily Astorian Established July 1, 1873 (USPS 035-000) Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503- 325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 www.dailyastorian.com MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper. SUBSCRIBER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Monday’s Keno: 09-13-14-15- 21-22-24-28-29-31-37-41-47- 50-53-58-63-69-77-80 Monday’s Lotto: 03-05-14- 16-18-26 Estimated jackpot: $2.2 million Monday’s Match 4: 03-09- 14-22 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Effective July 1, 2015 HOME DELIVERY MAIL EZpay (per month) ................$11.25 EZpay (per month) ............... $16.60 13 weeks in advance ........... $36.79 13 weeks in advance ........... $51.98 26 weeks in advance ........... $70.82 26 weeks in advance ......... $102.63 52 weeks in advance ......... $135.05 52 weeks in advance ......... $199.90 Circulation phone number: 503-325-3211 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Daily Astorian become the property of The Daily Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2017 by The Daily Astorian. 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