By Lani Furbank
Cutting a live Christmas tree from a local farm is a festive way to go green during the holidays.
Chopping down a tree doesn’t sound like it should be at the top of the list of ways to go green, but when it comes to Christmas trees, cutting a living tree from a local farm might actually be better for the planet than buying a fake one.
During their 5- to 10-year lifespan, those trees stabilize the soil, improve water quality and provide a habitat for wildlife. “I should be getting carbon tax credits for this,” jokes Lou Nichols, the owner of Loudoun Nursery in Purcellville. He has 18,000 trees planted on his farm, with around 2,000 new seedlings going into the ground each year.
Dave Hubbuch owns a much smaller operation, Blue Ridge Tree and Berry Farm in Lovettsville. He only plants 300 seedlings yearly, which allows him to care for trees without resorting to chemical assistance. He tackles weeds with a mower and strategic uprooting and removes pests such as praying mantis egg cases and bagworms by hand. This past season was the first time he had to spray, when the Douglas firs were hit with a fungus that caused needle loss.
Although Nichols does use some chemicals to kill weeds and pests, he is strategic about his application. His management strategy relies on diligent scouting: “If you’ve got something bad, spray for it, but don’t spray everything and don’t spray unless you absolutely have to.”
Hubbuch and Nichols replant four to 10 new seedlings for every one tree they cut, ensuring that their farms remain sustainable and continue providing an environmental service. Even so, cutting down a tree doesn’t constitute an environmental loss. “Most municipalities are recycling them,” Hubbuch explains. Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, Prince William and Alexandria turn trees into mulch that is made available for residents to use in their gardens. “The benefit continues even after it’s cut down,” Hubbuch says. Prince William County even repurposes trees as wildlife and aquatic habitats.
Fake trees, on the other hand, cannot be easily recycled. They are petroleum-based products, typically made with PVC, which contains vinyl chloride (classified by the EPA as a human carcinogen). According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the average family only uses their fake tree for six to nine years before sending it to the landfill.
It seems counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to ensure a steady growth of conifer trees in Virginia is to cut one down this Christmas.
Notes: In Virginia alone, nearly 500,000 trees were harvested in 2012, according to the USDA’s agriculture census.
(November 2015)
