News feeds
E-mail alerts
Mobile
Text alerts
Twitter
FacebookFarmers sending trees to troops
Local tree farms are shipping some Christmas spirit to overseas bases, and you can help.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Extras
Photos
Matt Mongin is the owner of Spring Valley Tree Farm, 2400 Cook Road, in Spring Valley. The facility will start selling Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving. They sell for $6.50 per foot up to 7 feet, and $8 per foot over 7 feet. Mongin is pulling a sled that he will eventually put a tree in.DAYTON — Local Christmas tree farmers are sending Ohio spirit to troops around the world.
Young's Jersey Dairy collected more than 300 trees from Ohio farmers for the Ohio Christmas Tree Association's Operation Evergreen. Owner Ben Young said FedEx will ship them to bases in Qatar, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.
Dave Dietz, owner of Evergreen Acres in Beavercreek, donated trees to Young's.
"I think it would be awful to be overseas and not have a Christmas tree," Dietz said. "I can't imagine not having one — it feels like family and home."
Big Tree Plantation and Grandma's Gardens, both in Warren County, are participating in Trees for Troops, a program of the National Christmas Tree Association.
From Dec. 4-6, customers can purchase a tree for $30. The tree will then be loaded into a FedEx truck and sent to a military family.
Meanwhile, many local Christmas tree farmers think Christmas tree sales may be recession-proof.
"We've been doing this for about 20 years," said Lucy Bailey of Valley View Tree Farm in Troy. "We thought after 9/11 there would be a downturn, but there wasn't. People enjoy cutting their own fresh trees."
The National Christmas Tree Association reports that people spent $1.3 billion on live Christmas trees last year, with 31.3 million households buying a live tree — up from 28.6 million households the previous year.
Growers said buying a locally grown tree supports family tree farms and the environment.
"Christmas trees grown on a Christmas tree farm are one of the most sustainable forms of agriculture," said Laura Rench of Country Pines Christmas Tree Farm in New Lebanon.
She said for every tree taken off the farm, they plant two to three seedlings. They've also eliminated pesticide use at their farm.
Dietz said Evergreen Acres customers can return trees to his farm, where they will be chipped up and put back on the soil.
