Nothing Beats the Real Thing

By Curt Arens

Agriculture

I know that installing a plastic tree is simple. But after raising real Christmas trees for over 20 years, putting up a plastic tree to me would be like watching the Super Bowl on a black and white TV. Something special would definitely be missing.

As a kid, before we raised our own trees, our neighbors gathered up their families this time of year and drove out to some Missouri River bottom land where cedar trees grew wild, choking out prime pasture land. The landowner told us that if we were to cut any of his cedar trees for Christmas, we had to cut a few extra to help him curb the population.

As a young ag college graduate anxious to try new things, I asked my Dad if I could plant Christmas trees on an acre of our land near the creek, where it was difficult to raise row crops. He helped me plant our first pine trees in the drought year of 1988. I connected six garden hoses together to water and nurture the first 250 trees during that hot summer...... Continue reading here

Here are some Christmas tree facts from the Nebraska Christmas Tree Growers Association:

1) Real Christmas trees are renewable, recyclable and completely biodegradable.

2) For every tree cut, two or three seedlings are planted.

3) There are about one million acres of Christmas trees in production, taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen.

4) In the U.S., there are about 15,000 Christmas tree growers and over 100,000 people employed in the industry.

5) It takes an average of six to 12 years for a seedling to grow into a saleable Christmas tree.

6) The top selling trees in the U.S. are balsam fir, Douglas fir, noble fir, Scotch pine (which has historically been most popular with Nebraska growers), Virginia pine and white pine.

Christmas Trees