The Forestry Forum

Well yesterday I officially ended a 62 year run(my entire life so far) of having a live christmas tree.  All of the christmas tree farms within a reasonable drive have either gone out of business or converted to just buying already cut trees from the north.  We have always used the std scotch pine 7-8ft height and those appear to be hard to come by even for the guys buying cut trees from the north.  Ran around yesterday and only found a couple of white pines in the 8ft range and they were $150.  Everyone down here in southern Il are getting fir trees from the commercial farms in the north.  My wife and I just do not like the look of them and most of the time they are even more expensive.  Also the fun of walking through the tree farm finding and cutting the right tree is no longer an option unless you go out before thanksgiving and tag one of the limited ones and then come back later to cut it down and bring it home.  I refuse to start thinking about Christmas until after thanksgiving.  So after giving up we ran around looking at artificial trees and found one that looks like what we have been buying for a number of years and ordered it online.  It will be here on Friday.  Cost was about $150 but should last for a very long time and I will no longer waste hours/$ in my fruitless search local farms/box store lots.  My wife grew up with artificial so not as big a deal for her.  I'm both sad and a little happy going forward.

My Mom had allergies.  Of course, when we got live, it was an ERC tree from a pasture.

My in-laws ran a tree farm for many years. I always enjoyed helping families find their perfect tree.
When the in-laws sold the farm some tree huggers bought it and refused to sell a tree of it. 
Life moves on,...
mh

MH, they probably call them old growth now🤦😊