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- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!stratus!soave!jane
- From: jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman)
- Newsgroups: rec.gardens
- Subject: Re: Christmas tree alternative?
- Message-ID: <8567.1717@stratus.SWDC.Stratus.COM>
- Date: 20 Nov 92 01:29:29 GMT
- References: <1992Nov17.092118.5813@athena.cs.uga.edu>
- Sender: news@SWDC.Stratus.COM
- Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., San Jose, CA
- Lines: 56
-
- What about a Norfolk Island Pine? (Which are not pines, by
- the way.) They have an appropriate shape, can be purchased as
- 5-foot trees in 5-gallon pots, will tolerate living indoors,
- and will even tolerate infrequent watering. The one caveat is
- they are very poke-y spiney, and I've never dealt with one
- without getting stabbed a lot.
-
- Although I admit to not being fond of "kill a tree for
- Christmas," I've become a lot more accepting of the custom
- since I've found out a lot about the Christmas tree
- "industry."
-
- Note:
- Christmas trees are grown as "crops," the same way you
- might raise carrots or artichokes or whatever. These trees
- are often raised on land that would otherwise lie fallow, i.e.
- right-of-way under electrical lines, etc. Plantations near
- urban areas can help purify the air.
-
- Most Christmas trees are grown by small "mom-and-pop"
- operations, rather than by large corporations. They are also
- often grown as a "fall back" crop on a farm, perhaps an acre
- of Christmas trees on a 40-acre parcel, to supplement the
- "real" crop being grown. Often, the Christmas tree plantation
- is the "crop" that will allow a small family farm to break even
- (or even--gasp!--make a profit). By buying a tree from such
- an operation (or a lot who purchases from one), you are
- helping to support the vanishing family farm and rural living.
-
- Commercial Christmas trees were, indeed, planted to meet a
- demand. There is still a *major* problem in areas of native
- conifers with "rustlers" who come in and illegally harvest
- naturally-growing evergreens. In the days before Christmas
- tree plantations, this was how *everyone* got their trees,
- going out into the woods and cutting down a tree. (I have
- also known people in rural areas who have had *landscape*
- trees--often expensive dwarf evergreens--disappear from their
- yard or their property while they were away. One lady came
- home to find a family in the midst of cutting down the spruce
- on her side lot, and they got downright nasty when she
- demanded to know what they were doing! After all, it was a
- tree "just sitting out in the wild," despite being planted on
- private property, from a nursery-grown specimen that cost $30!)
- Those cutting (truly) wild trees range from families out to
- get a traditional "wild" tree to commercial operations who move in
- and "strip" evergreen boughs off of large numbers of trees,
- essentially defoliating large patches of trees, for the florist
- trade. (Moral: KNOW where your holiday evergreens come
- from!!) These "rustlers" can be extremely environmentally
- destructive. So, in many ways, commercial trees are helping
- to save the environment.
- --
- Jilara [jane@swdc.stratus.com]
-
- "The field of pseudo-science hasn't progressed much in ten
- years, except to gain access to the net." --from ca.earthquakes
-