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David Barfield checks one of his saplings at his Christmas tree farm in New Caney, Texas, on Nov. 8. Only a handful of the 500 saplings planted have survived the drought this year.
NEW CANEY, Texas -- Dry, brown grass crunches underfoot as David Barfield walks through his 45-acre Christmas tree farm pointing at evergreens covered with brittle, rust-colored needles.
"Dead tree, dead tree, dead tree," he says, shaking his head at dry timber he hoped would be chopped down by parents with excited children.
Instead, Mother Nature delivered the Grinch in the form of a historic drought that has killed thousands of trees across Texas and Oklahoma. Some died of thirst. Others were destroyed by wildfires, whose breadth and intensity were magnified when wind swept the flames across parched landscape.
Most farmers plan to import trees from North Carolina to supplement any they have left, said Marshall Cathey, president of the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association.
They say they aren't planning to raise prices because consumers are reluctant to pay more than $40 or $50 for a Christmas tree, especially in the poor economy.
'Depressing'
But families hoping for a homegrown tree to cut down will have a harder time finding one, and dozens of farmers are struggling. Possibly most painful for these growers are the deaths of the youngest saplings, which guarantee the drought's effect will be felt for years to come.
"It's depressing, it really is," said Barfield, 53. "This was going to be our retirement."
He and his wife, Karen, 49, bought the farm about six years ago with dreams of retiring from Texas' oil fields and spending their final years peddling the Christmas spirit with fresh-cut trees, marshmallow roasts and hayrides in a red-and-white sleigh. They planted 20 acres of evergreen trees.
Now, barely two years after Karen Barfield retired to work the farm, she has returned full-time to her job selling explosion-proof enclosures to the oil industry. David Barfield has increased his hours doing part-time electronic work. Instead of selling some 400 homegrown trees as they do in a good year, they will be lucky to sell 100 — nearly all Frasier firs brought in from North Carolina.
Climatologist warns Texas drought could last decades. KPRC's Ryan Korsgard reports.
And they're not certain that will be enough to cover their property taxes. Barfield says he can only charge $50 for a North Carolina fir — just $10 more than he pays for them.
"Eight (trees) died within the last week," Barfield said, continuing his walk through his farm in New Caney. "These were all green a week ago. The drought has been hurting us real bad."
But at least he and his wife have other income. Others have not fared as well.
"We lost probably 90 percent of our trees," said Jean Raisey, 79, who's run a 10-acre Christmas tree farm in Purcell, Okla., with her husband since 1985. The other 10 percent are dying now, she said.
"We've had to hire a contractor and pull all the dead and all the live trees," she said. "And we're out of business."
Cathey, who owns the 50-acre Elves Farm in Denison, Texas, a town about 75 miles north of Dallas, said he has spoken to many of Texas' 120 Christmas tree farmers in recent months. Long stretches of triple-degree heat, he said, harmed the trees as much as the lack of rain.
11 inches of rain this year
And the drought has been bad. In Texas, less than 11 inches of rain fell this year compared to an annual average of almost 24 inches. In Oklahoma, there has been about 18.7 inches of rain this year compared to a long-term average of 30 inches. All trees have been hard-hit by the lack of rain.
"There's hundreds of thousands of trees dying," said Travis Miller, a drought expert at Texas A&M University.
"We're looking at a ... one-in-a-500-year kind of drought, and so it's weeding out the ones that can't survive this kind of extreme conditions," he added.
For evergreens, which usually prefer wetter, more temperate climates, the struggle may be greater than for drought-resistant plants, such as the juniper brush, although it too is dying in Texas this year.
Farmers who planted evergreens native to Afghanistan — and accustomed to a desert climate — have had greater success than those who planted trees from the northeast United States.
Those who irrigated also are having more modest success, although that costs — about $1,200 a month on a midsized farm.
Jan Webb, owner of the Double Shovel Christmas Tree Farm in West Texas, one of the driest areas of the state, said her Afghans have done well. Of the 400 she planted last year, only about 50 died. On the other hand, none of the 400 Leyland Cypress she planted survived.
It takes three to five years to grow an evergreen to a marketable size. Webb planted her first tree about three years ago and was hoping to open for the first time next Christmas, but with the drought, it will be at least two years before she has a homegrown tree to sell.
"We can't sell what's from our farm right now because they're too small," she said.
Yet the farmers are determined children will be able to see trees cut for Christmas — even if they're North Carolina firs liberally placed in Texas soil. There will be hayrides and picnics. Christmas carols will ring out and colorful lights will cover the bare branches.
Bah humbug to the drought, they say.
Leave a Comment:
I love my artificial tree...no mess or fire danger.
The only way your artificial tree would not be a fire danger is if it also had no lights. Real trees do not spontaneously combust. Fires are caused by electrical shorts on the many strings of lights plugged into a single receptacle. Normal light sets don't emit enough heat to ignite even a dried out real tree. However, you should know that your fake plastic tree (made from petroleum products) once ignited, releases toxic chemicals in the smoke and is harder to extinguish than a real tree. As for the mess, we have a fake tree and every year after it is taken down there are still some fake green "needles" to be vacuumed up.
Save the real trees. They can absorb CO2 and release O2. It makes sense to buy a fake one.
The chemicals used to grow Xmas trees have caused clusters of leukemia and other cancers - the big secret of Xmas tree growers. The chemicals get in ground water. Wives of the migrant men who work on Xmas tree farms are now taught how to launder the clothes that they wear UNDER the Hazmat suits! Why? The wives and children were becoming ill! Makes you wonder how healthy it is to have live Xmas farm trees inside your home!
@ Give it a rest
Nobody is talking about deforestation. These trees are farmed with the intent of being cut down. Had someone not plated them solely for that purpose, they would not be growing in the middle of an open field. I say eat beef! Cows take in O2 and release CO2. And they're tasty too...
@ AnIndividual
Methinks your tinfoil hat is a bit too tight. Best not go outside today while the Black Friday chemtrails are still lingering.
There are not enough Xmas trees cut down in a year to make the slightest dent in CO2 emissions. Plant a billion new ones and then maybe...
@AnIndividual
Proof please or you're simply another conspiracy nutcase.
Yes. Purchase Chinese petrochemical products for a pagan display to worship the god of greed.
Or in farm parlance it's a total crop failure that opens the door to some entitlement. Next year I plan to lose the whole rice crop planted next to my sidewalk.
@torngenes So I guess Santa Claus will not be making a vistit to your home this year.
Why to hell would you want to chop down a real tree anyway.No I am not a tree huger but I just do not see cutting down a tree and then throwing it away just to put decorations on it.
might not be a tree hugger but still no common sense.
The smell is really nice from a fresh cut tree. No plastic version has that, nor do they look real.
Some people just like the real thing.
We went to cut down our own trees a couple of times when I was a kid.
It was fun picking it and cutting it.
They usually have hay rides and cookies/caroling/cider - so it's a little bit more than just cutting down a tree.
I feel so bad for all the people and wildlife in the region effected by the drought.
I think people forget that in any year you could be hit by a 1000 year flood or 1000 year drought or 1000 year snowstorm or 1000 year heat wave or 1000 year cold snap.
We have no climatologists that can even predict what will happen next year.
So I tell everyone to over build, and over plan.
You build for a 100 year flood, but you should build for a 1000 year flood - for example.
It usually just costs a little more, but then you don't have to ever buy flood insurance!
Best of luck to these tree growers.
I hope people remember them in a few years when they have trees again.
It's a tradition I grew up with. It causes no harm to anyone. And when I'm done with it, it goes into the chipper/shredder and becomes mulch for the roses I grow.
ah yeah..ive been trying to figure out how to keep the pine needles out of my carpet though..maybe if i put a bag or something under the tree base
I put a large area rug under the tree. Then when taking it down I wrap it in a sheet and tape the sheet closed. Always leaves the bare minimum of needles lying around. Only problem, last year I forgot to drain the tree well, and as it was lifted over the couch, the couch got a nice shower of stagnant water....lesson learned.
Should have seen the one my dad left up till Feb one year at his house. Wasn't a needle left on it when we took it out.
Free enterprise doesn't guarantee success. There are those who win and those who don't. Risk vs. reward. Dust yourself off and give it another go.
CAN never predict NATURE!
SHE has left her mark all over us !
Yep and they are called "hickies".
Hickeys! Of course. That's how it's spread. 7,005,500,000 and counting.
Good reason to upper the cost this season on X-mas trees.
if its called weather modification then why doesn't it work? no matter where i go it seems most trees are dying or in some sort of trouble. as seedlings grow each year, i can see that 2011 has slowed growth in many plants and trees.
The effects of climate change. The Netherlands still do not have snow yet this year!
How bad will it have to get before the Flatlanders will use simple common sense!
Would have been killed by man, anyway.
Jeremiah 10:1-4 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Buy a live tree, Decorate it like a heathen and plant it in mother earth after the solstice. Goddess Bless )O(
Do those trees grow there naturally???
Well hell, who's up for the creation and development of the first remedial irrigation company? Politicians certainly have not investigated--or offered any input for these drought disasters. Sounds like steady employment for a few hundred Americans!
you mean, the drought kills them a couple months early? It would have been a waste of water anyway...
What, no one claiming its God's will that the trees died, and they're with God in a better place now?
25-30 inches/yr of rain is marginal for growing trees. NC and OR both avg. over 40 inches/yr---where most Xmas trees are grown. It was certainly possible, but the vagaries of weather dealt a blow to the crop.
Weather modification? Tried on hurricanes and deserts in the 70s. Doesn't work. What are you babbling about?
global warming killed these trees.One year not too far in the future they will be writing about our dying because of it.Merry Christmas.
The saplings in the picture should be ready to cut down and decorate in....Oh I dont know, 25 years !
As trees become more and more scarce in coming years, it will be unheard of to have a real Christmas tree! One thing we can all do to have a real tree, however, is to buy a living tree in a pot--of course these are smaller--and try to keep it alive for several years at least. That's what I do.
Joe, you couldn't be more right. Global warming is coming fast and furious, and we haven't even scratched the surface. Wait and see what the weather will be like in 10 years...not to mention the food shortages that will come with it. Huge population growth and a shrinking food supply will not be pretty.
Global warming= longer growing seasons. More food.
Christmas trees are overrated. They take up valuable condo space.
Let see. Seventy years ago, texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of Colorado were going through dust storms created by years of severe drought. No air conditioners in cars, and under a thousand homes with HVAC systems. Gee, what caused that? Less than twelve thousand years ago, we had glaziers covering much of the mid-west and northeast. They disappeared. What caused that. The world warmed up, then a little ice age occured in Europe and North American in the 1700's, then warmed up in the 1800 and 1900's. What caused that. Normal climate change would be the cause. Been going on since, when ever. Will still be going on when all those trying to make a buck off a false claim are dead and rotting. Charalatans and ignorant will always be around. It's fun to laugh at them. Gore doesn't believe his lies, because he lives as if the higher his carbon footprint, the better. But fools are always there. To follow their false leaders.
Well said, but be careful, most folks on these comment boards become scared and confused when someone tries to introduce logic and common sense into a discussion.
this is all about fear .......git ready to pay more for your tree!!!
there are plenty more spots to grow x-mas trees
and one more thing has no one herd of irrigation
Maybe you shouldn't try growing Christmas trees in Texas. Just a thought! I live in a place that is known to be hot and sometimes not get a lot of rain, lets make a tree farm and have our living depend on it. Sounds like a wonderful idea!
When you are given lemons, make lemonade. In this case sell Charlie Brown Xmas Trees.
We need to end this senseless slaughter of innocent trees. Nothing illustrates "the waste of resources", better than a Christmas tree does.
And it has nothing to do with the religion either. The entire idea is centered around gift giving, and the commercialization behind it. Save the money this year, and use it to spend time with family doing stuff. It will be money WAY better spent. In more ways than one.
Why stop there? Why not other forms of plant life that are farmed for human consumption? Corn, potatoes, beans, tomatoes! Oh my! When will this massive slaughter end? Maybe OWS should add this to their demands! ROFLMAO
I agree freedom .
meatpopsicle... those things you mention are food plants that can be replaced very quickly .. Apples and oranges dude.
I hope you don't have children.
<p>For those who think artificial is better for the environment, that is far from correct. Live trees are grwon cut and replaced. This is helpful to our economythorugh jobs and exports. Every acre of Christmas trees, while growing, produce enough oxygen for ten people for 1 year. While growing the trees act like scrub brushes cleaning the air we breath. Most cut trees are chipped and turned to mulch for compost...another plus.</p>
<p>I contrast, artificial are made from petroleum products, use massive amounts of electrity to produce, are produced by chinese factories in less than ideal emplyment conditions, use more fuel to transport from China and then eventually end up in a landfill for anbother couple thousand years. Think about it....</p>
Buy the fake ones. I used to have 2 before I gave up even having a tree for Christmas. I no longer celebrate holidays, no money!
How sad that you equate celebrating holidays with money?
Why not? The corporations do ... and they own the show.
A one-in-500 year drought? Another climate change denier in denial. Let's all hope this is not a longer-term trend for this country. And for all you Perry supporters, when does your prayer for rain take affect?