Kate Lewton is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.
BURLINGTON — Christmas trees are a staple in many households throughout Vermont in the winter months, but it’s the summer months that make the Christmas magic happen. Even though peak sales for Christmas tree farms are in November and December, the saplings are largely tended in the spring and summer.
“We all feel like Christmas tree farms are a vital part of Vermont’s rural landscape and character and contribute to Vermont’s economy,” said Amanda Werner, the daughter of Cheryl and Fred Werner of Middlebury’s Werner Tree Farms. “They are a tradition that connects generations.”
Werner Tree Farms has been selling trees since 1980, after a push for Christmas tree planting in the mid 1970s. They’ve since grown to about 15,000 trees across their properties.
“There was a county forester who was really pushing Christmas tree planting in Addison County, and in the early ages of this farm, about 30 years ago, there were about 75 tree farms in Addison County,” Werner said. “You look out there today, now there’s 15.”
There is a trend of dwindling farms in Vermont, including tree farms, but according to the 2022 agricultural census there were still 3,495 acres of Christmas trees in the state on 260 farms. That crop is worth $2.6 million as of 2022.
Steve Moffat began Moffat’s Tree Farm in 2000. However, his family had been selling trees loosely on the side since they started a dairy farm on the land in the 1930s. The trees looked different back then, Moffat said.
“The trees were just wild,” Moffat said. “Uncultivated, unsheared, unfertilized, very natural trees.”
But today trees require more cultivation to become marketable. After Cody Purinton started selling trees from the Purinton Maple and Tree Farm in Huntington in 1996, he learned a drip application method, a system of irrigation to deliver water and other substances, like herbicides and pesticides. The herbicides remove weeds, said Purinton, and the pesticides prevent insects like aphids from harming the plant.
“Aphids come in and they will attack the new growth on trees just as it starts growing and they actually make it curl so it isn’t as pretty or lush as it’s supposed to be on the Christmas tree,” Werner said.
In late spring, fertilizer is put down, and then they start trimming the trees, followed by mowing and more shaping. Werner Farms estimated it took about 60 full days to complete the shearing.
Werner said he’s intentionally crafted cultivation practices at Werner Farms with sustainability and innovation in mind.
“I think any smart farmer understands that without good stewardship of their land, their farm is not gonna be viable in the future,” Werner said.
He implemented rotational grazing to keep their trees healthy with a breed of sheep called Shropshires. They’re extremely picky eaters, and they skip the trees and instead much on the grass and weeds around them, Werner said.
“They’re removing grass so that we don’t need to go and mow the grass that they eat. They’re leaving manure behind that should be improving the soil over time,” Werner said.
But Christmas tree farming is a long-term investment because the slow growth of trees requires longer land leases.
“It takes 10 years to grow one Christmas tree and it isn’t profitable to only get one crop off. You realistically need a 15 to 20 year lease to make it feasible,” Werner said. “Without land access, existing farms will continue for a while, but if the new generation of farmers can’t afford to take ’em over then it doesn’t work.”
But modern farmers say they will keep working because of the joy it brings to Vermont’s Christmas season.
“I like to think that, spiritually, if you wanna put it that way, that the Christmas trees know they’re being grown as Christmas trees. They’re happy with their fate. I’m good with that. And I always say, you cut it down, I’m gonna plant another, don’t worry,” Moffat said.
