91探花

For many Bobcats, the Lees-91探花 tradition of displaying a beautiful, lush Christmas tree in the center of campus is the perfect way to ring in the holiday season. Not only does the traditional celebrate the time of year and bring the campus community together for the holiday, but it’s also a celebration of one of this area’s largest exports: Fraser fir trees. According to the (NCCTA), the Christmas tree industry in North Carolina─dominated overwhelmingly by Fraser firs─is ranked number two in the nation in amount harvested and cash receipts and contributes more than 26% of the real Christmas trees produced in the United States.

Now, with the acquisition of South Campus at Grandfather Home, Lees-91探花 is joining this North Carolina tradition, if only on a small scale, with a handful of acres of Christmas tree farmland located on the South Campus property. With this new property, the western North Carolina Christmas tree industry is closer to home than ever before, but while it is a large part of this area's economy, many do not know the ins and outs of the business and the impact it can have on the region.

Although they have become the dominant symbol of the holiday season, and historians have traced the use of evergreen plants as winter decoration back before the creation of Christianity itself, trees were not always used around Christmas. In fact, even when decorated fir and spruce trees did begin to become a symbol of the holiday season, Americans were rather late adopters of the trend.

Germans are generally regarded as the first people to bring decorated trees into their homes in the 16^th century, but due to early American sentiments of Christmas as a no-nonsense holiday, settlers resisted the use of any kind of decoration or perceived frivolity on or around the sacred day. Nevertheless, the German tree tradition continued to spread throughout Europe.

According to an article on the by History.com, it wasn’t until the 1830s when the first Christmas tree was displayed in Pennsylvania by German American settlers who brought their holiday traditions to the states. As the population of German and Irish immigrants in the United States continued to rise, so too did the frequency of decorated Christmas trees.

“By the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise around the U.S.,” History.com writes. “It was noted that Europeans used small trees about four feet in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling.”

As the popularity of Christmas trees continued to grow throughout the United States, more festive farms began to crop up across the country. A few regions reigned supreme, however, and the North Carolina mountains have proved themselves to be fertile ground for the crop since the first Fraser fir trees were planted in the state in 1955.

According to the NCCTA, the industry has grown significantly in these last 67 years, and now, “North Carolina has more than 850 growers producing approximately 50 million trees on more than 38,000 acres.” This is a booming industry that totaled an excess of $86 million in 2017 according to the USDA Agriculture Census. These trees are all grown in a handful of Western North Carolina counties including Avery, Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany.

The , which seeks to promote and support the North Carolina Christmas tree economy and the national use of “real” trees by providing marketing, education, and “ethical, professional, and visionary leadership,” was founded by five Avery County tree growers in 1959.

Although the Christmas tree growing process has become somewhat of a science for North Carolina growers over the past handful of decades, it is no straightforward task, and requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep by growers and farmhands to produce the classical Christmas tree shape.

Trees usually take 12 to 15 years to grow to a harvestable size, a period throughout which trees undergo a shearing process, where the top vertical branch of the tree is trimmed to encourage horizontal branch growth, and a trimming process where growers shape and reshape the tree to appear fuller and neater.

After being marked for sale with color-coded ribbons, cut, bundled, and baled, the North Carolina Fraser fir trees are shipped off to retail lots throughout the United States, bringing a little bit of the Appalachian Mountains into the homes of thousands of Americans during their Christmas celebrations.

Not only does a real tree recall the beautiful mountains where it was grown but opting for a Fraser fir over an artificial tree can also offer some environmental benefits. Throughout the growing process, these trees become important parts of the local ecosystem, filtering carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converting it to oxygen and providing homes and shelter for insects and small creatures.

“In many ways, a Christmas tree plantation in western North Carolina is like a woodland meadow. The trees themselves provide shelter for smaller birds and mammals. The diversity of ground covers around trees provide pollen, nectar, support insects which in turn are food, and provide seeds and forage,” Extension Specialist of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University Jill Sidebottom . “It is a good habitat for mice and rabbits and ground dwelling birds such as grouse and quail. Songbirds build nests in trees. Even the decaying stumps of the trees that were cut harbor insects that are food for woodpeckers and flickers.”

Unlike artificial trees which are made from nonrenewable plastics and take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to break down in a landfill, real Christmas trees are a renewable resource, and can be recycled or reused once the holiday season is over.

“I’m not a fan of plastic or artificial trees. I will always go for sustainable approaches, but make sure you can reuse and recycle some of that,” Assistant Dean of Natural and Health Sciences Shinjini Goswami said. “There are ways to recycle. If we can learn how to reuse recyclable bags and other paper and plastic products, why can’t we learn how to reuse real living organisms? That’s an important thing to learn as well.”

Many of the environmental benefits of a real tree depend on what happens to it once the holiday has passed. Those who do not choose to recycle their tree will be sending it to a landfill, just the same as an artificial tree.

Some communities provide tree recycling services, but even in areas where a community-led recycling program is not present, individuals can take this responsibility into their own hands to better their local environment. NCCTA provides several ways that people can give their Christmas trees . The wood from the tree can be chipped into biodegradable mulch for use in parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor recreation areas. The tree itself can be placed along beaches and riverbeds as wind and water barriers that help prevent soil erosion.

Despite these benefits, there is one primary environmental concern around Christmas tree farming that is important to note, which is the use of pesticides to stave off harmful and invasive beetle species.

“Generally, when we have very hilly and mountainous areas, whatever pesticides are not being used by the crop basically run off into the water,” Goswami said. Not only do these chemicals have the possibility of polluting surrounding bodies of water, but Goswami also said that not enough research has been done to determine the effects these pesticides may have on the non-target species that rely on the Christmas trees for shelter.

The pesticide problem is acknowledged within the Christmas tree farming industry, and many growers and researchers have made great strides to protect the soil, water, and wildlife that surround their farms. According to Sidebottom’s research, pesticide use has been on the steady decline in North Carolina as growers continue to adapt to (IPM) strategies.

IPM techniques include scouting, where growers closely examine their trees for problem pests; growing ground cover crops between trees to help prevent erosion and attract beneficial insects; recognizing and protecting these beneficial insects through avid scouting and strategic pesticide use and application; and holding off on pesticide use unless it is absolutely necessary.

Adopting an IPM approach to Christmas tree farming often means more work, but as Sidebottom notes, many farmers consider this approach well worth it for its benefits to the natural environment, and to the overall health and appearance of their crop.

“Pest management surveys conducted by N.C. Cooperative Extension specialists have documented a 71% decrease in pesticide use from 2000 to 2013,” she writes, and that number continues to go down.

The fragrant piney smell, beautiful, lush greenery, and sentimental memories of selecting your very own Christmas tree are more than enough to persuade hundreds of thousands of Americans to opt for an authentic tree year after year, but this season don’t forget to give some thought to the second life you can give your tree once 2023 rolls around. The North Carolina mountains these trees call home will thank you for it.