How Virginia’s Dept. of Forestry and Christmas Tree Growers Spruce up the Holidays

The annual holiday tradition of chopping down a Christmas tree from a local farm doesn’t just come with fond memories and green needles stuck everywhere. If you’re a Virginian, choosing to store presents under a white pine, Virginia pine, Scotch pine, or Norway spruce means there’s a chance you’ll also be supporting reforestation efforts by Virginia’s Department of Forestry.

Approximately 500,000 white pine seedlings grown at the department’s Augusta Nursery Center are sold to local Christmas tree farms throughout the commonwealth, said Assistant Nursery Manager Joshua McLaughlin. The goal isn’t to rake in profits for the department, McLaughlin said — it’s to ensure the commonwealth stays evergreen.

“We’re planting white pine for the purposes that it needs to be done,” McLaughlin said. “The nurseries are 100% self-supporting, so every season’s sale and everything that we do keeps this outfit continuously running.”

Seedlings from the state nursery can also be popular among local tree farms, said Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association President Ryan Clouse. While he encourages farms to shop around and compare prices, state seedlings could be less expensive to buy in bulk compared with commercial sellers.

Longtime Christmas tree farm growers Bill Francisco, John Houston, and former grower Charlie Conner all buy state seedlings for their operations. They said while Virginia Department of Forestry seedlings are grown primarily for reforestation purposes and may require more work to turn into a nice-looking tree, their benefits extend far beyond the holiday season.

“They definitely have everything priced really good to help with reforestation and cash crop timber,” said Houston, owner of Sweet Providence Christmas Tree Farm in Floyd County, which produced the tree currently displayed in Virginia’s Executive Mansion.

Clouse’s Pine Hill Farm owner Ryan Clouse sitting next to employee Tommy Hopkins dressed as Santa. (Courtesy of Ryan Clouse)

Not only are white pine trees a good source of timber, said National Christmas Tree Association spokesperson Jill Sidebottom, but their tips are used for roping wreaths and other decorations.

“That has become a big business which is associated with the Christmas tree industry and isn’t talked about a lot,” Sidebottom said. “They cut the bottom branches off of trees that are 15 to 20 feet tall to harvest the tips and then allow the trees to grow up into timber.”

According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, there are more than 460 Christmas tree farms throughout the Commonwealth. Virginia ranks seventh among U.S. states in terms of total Christmas tree inventory, sixth in total tree acreage in production, and 13th in the number of operations with Christmas tree sales.

Virginia Christmas trees generate more than $11.5 million in sales annually, said Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matthew Lohr in a press release last month.

A new study from West Virginia University also found that shopping for a real Christmas tree is good for mental health, and the farmers said they can see why.

“Being a cut-your-own farm, I do think it’s relaxing for mental health for people to be able to just take a long walk in the country and wander around the field and look at trees and the scenery and the view and see wild animals perhaps and just be outside,” Francisco said.

One type of tree you won’t find the Virginia Department of Forestry growing is Fraser fir, one of the more popular Christmas tree species in the commonwealth, primarily grown in Southwest Virginia. But the department has helped to establish the Mount Rogers Christmas Tree Growers Association seed orchard, which grows approximately 1200 Fraser firs, said Conner, the former vice president of the association and owner of Mountain Magic Christmas Trees in Marion.

The association, alongside the department and other groups, “organized to address some research needs that needed to be taken care of, and we worked with the Forest Service as far as collecting seed for Fraser fir,” Conner said.

Clouse also purchases state seedlings for his Clouse’s Pine Hill Farm in Frederick County, but Fraser firs makes up the majority of the trees he sells. However, he said the department is currently testing to see if it can grow fir tree species at the nursery.

While Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently recognized this December as “Virginia Christmas Tree Month,” ensuring Virginians have access to good quality trees and fond memories during the holidays is a year-round operation for farmers.

“We have folks that will come in and take forever to cut it down because they’re cutting it at an angle, and all the kids are sitting there laughing at them,” Clouse said. “Or they’ll have some experience, ‘No, I want this tree, no, I want this tree,’ so they’re back and forth across the farm, and ultimately they come back to the first one, and that’s what they remember for Christmas time and Thanksgiving time. They’re going to talk about that — ‘You remember when Uncle Joe did this or Dad did this?’”

by Meghan McIntyre, Virginia Mercury

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