NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Friday, November 30, 2018
Supplies remain tight for Oregon Christmas trees
While the USDA did not
conduct a survey for Christ-
mas trees in 2018, Landgren
said Oregon growers will
likely ship around 5.2 mil-
lion trees to retailers nation-
wide — or about the same
as 2017. Past years’ harvests
had been as high as 7 mil-
lion to 9 million trees, he
said.
It could take another six
to 10 years for supply and
demand to balance, Land-
gren added, based on the
time it takes to grow popu-
lar species such as Douglas
fir and Noble fir from seed-
ling to holiday height.
“It takes a long time to
go through the cycle of a
Christmas tree,” he said.
According to the National
Christmas Tree Association,
consumers reported spend-
ing an average of $75 per
tree in 2017. Gary Snyder,
president of the Kirk Co.,
a large tree grower with
offices in Oregon City, said
prices have risen 10-15 per-
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
A lingering shortage
from Oregon growers means
Americans will once again
pay more for Christmas
trees this holiday season.
Chal Landgren, a Christ-
mas tree specialist at Ore-
gon State University, said
tight supplies are the result
of overproduction during
the late 2000s that deflated
prices and forced roughly
one-third of farms to drop
out of the business.
Oregon is still the top
producer of Christmas trees
in the U.S., though Land-
gren said there are about
400 fewer growers now
compared to just three years
ago, turning what was a glut
of cheap trees into a deficit.
“It’s this sort of boom
and bust (cycle) of agri-
culture,” Landgren said.
“When people weren’t mak-
ing any money, they just got
out of the business.”
Kelly Lyon/The Register-Guard via AP
Christmas trees get bailed on Thursday in Cheshire,
and will be shipped to Idaho.
cent each year for the last
three or four years.
Snyder said prices will
be up a little bit again this
year, but there should still
be plenty of trees available.
“I don’t think there
should be any issue with
people finding a real tree,”
Snyder said.
Bob Schaefer, general
manager of Noble Mountain
Tree Farm in Salem, said
quality this year is “excep-
tional,” despite a record-set-
ting drought and heat over
the summer. Dry condi-
tions actual helped produc-
tion during harvest, Schae-
fer said, while timely rains
in October provided some
much-needed relief.
“The only thing that
really impacted us was the
hot, dry summer, but that
didn’t impact our crop trees.
It impacted our seedlings,”
Schaefer said.
The
weather-related
impacts to seedlings is a con-
cern for Landgren at OSU,
since most of the region’s
Christmas trees are grown
without irrigation. Anecdot-
ally, some farms reported up
to 70 percent seedling mor-
tality this summer, Land-
gren said, which is much
higher than the average of
10-15 percent.
Landgren said the uni-
versity is experimenting
with ways to reduce seed-
ling mortality, such as shad-
ing and chemical sprays to
reduce water transpiration.
If young trees continue to
die at a rapid rate, he said
it could result in another
shortage five years down
the road.
“Trying to get these trees
to survive has been a bit of
a challenge,” Landgren said.
McKenzie “Ken” Cook,
of McKenzie Farms based
in Estacada, said the indus-
try has dealt with a long,
hard struggle to rebound
from this latest shortage.
He said the number of trees
grown in Oregon has fallen
from 90 million to fewer
than 40 million.
His company, which
grows around 8 million
trees in the Willamette Val-
ley, faced nearly closing,
with Cook having to go out
of pocket to stay afloat, he
said. Fortunately, he said the
business was able to survive
and is working to stabilize
supply and demand.
Once that happens, Cook
said he believes farmers are
growing smarter now in
order to avoid a similar sit-
uation in the future.
“I don’t see them jump-
ing back in this category as
a pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow,” Cook said. “After
four miserable cycles over a
40-year period, I don’t think
this will be repeated again.”
Brown’s budget gears up for more fights with Trump
tration for two years. This
week, it moved to arm itself
for more fights.
Gov.
Kate
Brown
carved out $2 million
in her proposed 2019-
21 budget for suing the
By AUBREY WIEBER
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s
government has been at legal
war with President Don-
ald Trump and his adminis-
Trump administration.
Whether it’s over a travel
ban, attempted repeal of
the Affordable Care Act or
sanctuary policies, Brown
and Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum have repeat-
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
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TUESDAY
Mostly cloudy with
a shower
A rain or snow
shower in spots
Mostly cloudy and
chilly
Partly sunny and
chilly
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and sun
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42° 32°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
40° 26°
40° 25°
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HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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44° 32°
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OREGON FORECAST
40° 24°
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
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TEMP.
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Olympia
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Kennewick Walla Walla
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Pullman
Yakima 47/33
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Portland
Hermiston
51/39
The Dalles 51/32
Salem
Corvallis
50/37
Yesterday
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La Grande
42/27
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
50/39
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Ontario
47/29
Caldwell
Burns
47°
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50/40
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through 3 p.m. yest.
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TEMP.
Pendleton 39/25
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
48/33
48/32
48°
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43°
29°
72° (1892) -13° (1896)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
50/33
Aberdeen
39/31
44/32
Tacoma
Yesterday
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Spokane
Wenatchee
50/39
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
49/35
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WSW 6-12
WSW 7-14
NNW 4-8
WNW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
41/27
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Sunrise today
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Moonset today
edly argued that the federal
government has become an
affront to Oregon values.
Since Trump’s elec-
tion, Oregon has partic-
ipated as a plaintiff with
other states in 14 lawsuits
against his administration.
As of June, the state has
incurred $185,000 in costs
even though state Justice
Department attorneys under
Rosenblum’s direction have
been handling the work.
“I want to personally
thank Governor Brown,”
Rosenblum told the Capi-
tal Bureau in an email. “The
additional funding in her
budget will help us continue
to protect our environment
and defend existing health
care, civil and consumer
rights as well as our immi-
gration laws.”
Among the lawsuits
Oregon joined were mul-
tiple versions challenging
Trump’s ban on people from
several
Muslim-majority
countries to come into the
United States. The lawsuits
were effective in halting
the travel ban several times,
though the U.S. Supreme
Court eventually ruled that
most of the ban was legal.
Oregon also sued to stop
the federal government
from attempting to withhold
funds due to its sanctuary
state law. Oregon has had a
sanctuary law since 1987,
and voters recently reaf-
firmed it.
Oregon has also joined
7:14 a.m.
4:13 p.m.
none
1:17 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Dec 6
Dec 15
Dec 22
Dec 29
lawsuits challenging the
U.S. Census Bureau’s deci-
sion to ask about citizenship
and Trump’s effort to repeal
the Affordable Care Act
and the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals.
Brown has repeatedly
talked about defending the
state from the federal admin-
istration and has labeled the
money proposed for current
and future lawsuits as the
“Oregon Defense Fund.”
“The federal government
is receding from its role as a
strong partner in navigating
this moment,” Brown told
reporters Wednesday.
Funding the lawsuits over
the past two years has been
difficult, said Misha Isaak,
one of Brown’s policy advi-
sors. The Justice Department
is largely funded by fees
charged to other state agen-
cies for legal services, much
as a law firm would bill its
clients. The agency had to
cobble together resources to
join the lawsuits, Isaak said.
Rosenblum requested the
$2 million purse for continu-
ing the legal fights.
“I think as we move
through the biennium, if
that proves to be insuffi-
cient we probably would
support an ask to the emer-
gency board,” Isaak said.
Isaak said the state could
partner with attorneys work-
ing as volunteers or retain
outside lawyers who spe-
cialize in such lawsuits.
Isaak said the $2 mil-
lion will fund pending law-
suits and allow the Jus-
tice Department to respond
to new actions by Trump.
Isaak said Brown is specif-
ically worried about Trump
shrinking the Cascade-Sis-
kiyou National Monument,
reducing funding for repro-
ductive health services and
rolling back protection for
discrimination against trans-
gender people.
“I cannot predict what the
administration in the White
House is going to do,”
Brown said. “What I know
is what I will do. And that
is, I will continue to fight for
and protect Oregonians and
Oregon values.”
Brown has also taken to
combating Trump on other
fronts. In her budget, she
asks for $2 million to pro-
vide legal services for immi-
grants facing federal depor-
tation proceedings.
“They may not be able
to provide soup-to-nuts rep-
resentation of everyone in
removal proceedings, but at
least they would make sure
that everybody would have
some access to communi-
cating with a lawyer,” Isaak
said.
Brown said that Oregon
has “been a place that is
considered to be welcoming
and inclusive to all who call
Oregon home. And I want
to make sure that our immi-
grant and refugee communi-
ties feel safe and welcomed
in the great state of Oregon.”
McKay Creek Estates
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