Choose-And-Cut Tree Farms Scarce
Some Families Still Travel Miles for Tradition
Last updated Friday, November 23, 2007 9:31 PM CST in News
By Scarlet Sims
THE MORNING NEWS
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Northwest Arkansas families who like to make an outing of getting a Christmas tree must travel counties away to find a tree farm where they can choose and cut a tree.
Those who know the business say area farms have folded in the face of more merchants selling fresh-cut trees, the intensive labor of growing trees and increasing property value.
"The Christmas tree farm -- the mom and pop deal has been kind of rooted out by big business," said Darrin Henderson, Madison County cooperative extension service staff chairman.
The last known tree farm in Madison County closed about five years ago, he said.
"They just went by the wayside out there," Henderson said. "It's kind of a labor- and capital-expensive production. That and the price of land. It's a lot more economical to sell it than to grow on it."
Growing Christmas trees became popular in Arkansas in the mid-1970s when the Arkansas Christmas Tree Growers' Association started with 200 members. Today there are 32 members, said Association President Terry Christy, who operates Hilltop Christmas Tree Farm near Dardanelle.
Counties in Northwest Arkansas never had a large number of Christmas tree farms, but now even those farms are gone. A lot of farms have gone out of business in the past 15 years, Christy said.
Location is important because a farm needs to be close to a large population center but still far enough out that property values don't rise to such an extent that farming becomes impractical, Christy said.
High property values have influenced the closure of niche farms such as pick-your-own blueberry and Christmas tree farms in Washington County, said Berni Kurz, cooperative extension service staff chair. Small farmers can't afford to buy land to farm, and many Washington County farms have become subdivisions or commercial property, he said.
Droughts the past several years may have closed tree farms in Benton County, said Robert Seay, county cooperative extension service chair. Seay isn't aware of any producing Christmas tree farms.
The only known Christmas tree farm in Benton County, called Fryer's Tree Farm, isn't selling trees this year, according to a recorded message at the business.
In Carroll County, property values have had less of an impact, said Barbara Balas, who helped her husband, George, run Balas Christmas Tree Farm near Berryville for about 18 years. The couple closed the farm in the mid-1990s because it was hard to do the labor as they got older.
Growing Christmas trees is a lot of hot, hard work, Barbara Balas said. Every tree has to be sheared at least twice a year and mowed around all year. Trees take about eight years to reach 7 to 8 feet tall, which means revenue doesn't come in right away.
A person can't tend the Christmas tree farms and have a full-time job, but full-time farming won't pay the bills, said Connie Lollis, who helps her husband, Buddy, run Lollis Christmas Tree Farm in Rudy. They're both retired from other jobs.
"You can't make a living out of Christmas tree farming alone," she said.
Christmas tree growers hope fresh-cut trees will make a comeback in Arkansas but that depends partly on reviving family traditions, said Richard Gustin, who closed his farm in Carroll County in 2005. He said he didn't sell enough trees for the amount of labor that went into them.
Part of the reason farms have struggled is families do what is convenient. They buy a pre-cut tree at the grocery store or an artificial tree they can store in the attic, Christy said. Many families have forgotten the tradition of getting a tree together, he said.
"The tradition is leaving and has been leaving," Christy said. "Families aren't families anymore. Everybody's got their own busy lives."
To fight that trend, many farms now focus on providing more than just a Christmas tree. Farms across the state offer gift shops, sweets, hot chocolate, apple cider, hay rides and photographs, Christy said.
Christy takes a photograph of each of his customers and mails it to them as a Christmas card. The personal touch and experience local growers offer is something that keeps customers coming back to his farm, he said.
"We're trying to make people feel special because the Christmas tree industry is going the wrong way," Christy said.
Christmas in the Ozarks Tree Farm in Omaha gives hay rides on the weekends. The farm creates an adventure for families that can't be matched by just buying a tree, said Martin Babb, who runs the farm with his wife, Jill. Some families drive from Rogers, Fayetteville and Branson, Mo., to visit Babb's farm, he said.
Some families hang on to the tradition of going to a farm to pick out a tree, Kurz said. He has been taking his wife and three daughters to Lollis Christmas Tree Farm every year since 1991. Now, his youngest daughter is in high school, he said.
"It was something we thought could be done with the kids," Kurz said. "For us, it's been a family outing and having a fresh tree versus having a tree that is on a lot and that was cut weeks ago."
Growing up, Kurz never had an artificial tree. His family used to let cedar trees grow along their fence and cut them down for Christmas. Now, he prefers the Virginia pine, the most popular tree grown on most tree farms, Kurz said.
Real trees fill the house with a pine scent that is important to Kurz.
"That smell tells me it's holiday time," Kurz said.
O, CHRISTMAS TREE
Lollis Christmas Tree Farm
2817 Zora Chapel Drive, Rudy
474-2102
Open through Dec. 22.
Closed for inclement weather.
Virginia pines
Christmas in the Ozarks Tree Farm
15965 Warden Road., Omaha
(870) 577-7389
Open Thanksgiving Day through Christmas
Scotch and Virginia pines
www.christmasintheozarkstreefarm.com
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