Christmas trees have something in common with trees cut down for paper: replacing them with other materials doesn’t actually save trees.
Both types of trees are grown on managed land, mainly tree farms, and few of these sites would exist without the market demand created by the purchase of Christmas trees and paper. While some of these sites are on land that was previously forested, and imported paper may create market demand that could lead to new land being cleared for more tree farms, trees consumed from domestic sources are driving more trees to be planted.
The Hagle Tree Farm in Somis is a good example. Somis has not been a forest since the retreat of the ice caps in the Pleistocene. Nevertheless, from the ranch’s rolling land sprouts a small forest of Monterey pines and Arizona blue cypresses. Those trees only exist because many Ventura County residents want the chance to pick out and cut down a Christmas tree. Only trees at least four feet tall may be cut on the farm, with the remainder saved for the following year’s harvest.
The farm charges $50 for the opportunity to cut down a four-foot tree and take it home, and the charge increases by $10 per additional foot. Like most local Christmas tree sales, Hagle Tree Farm also sells pre-cut trees from Oregon and Washington. Those noble spruces and Nordman firs start at 5 feet tall, which costs $70. The highest category is 10 feet, which sells for $250.
For about 10,000 local shoppers each year, the annual choice is Big Wave Dave’s, with locations in Ventura, Camarillo, Moorpark and Santa Barbara. The owner, Dave Lindren, supplies these locations with trees from his farm in Washington. Lindren acknowledges the impact of trucking on the environment, but he points out: “The transportation pollution is small compared to the benefits of growing a tree, which sucks carbon from the air and produces oxygen.”
In addition to the fuel consumption and air pollution associated with transporting trees from the Pacific Northwest to Ventura County, the environmental impacts of felled trees include water used for irrigation, energy required for harvesting, and potential soil depletion and erosion. In the case of Hagle Tree Farm, the outgoing message on the farm’s voicemail states that their trees are ‘pesticide free’ so there is no additional impact on the environment in this case, but there is on other trucked trees .
However, according to the Omni Calculator’s Christmas Tree Footprint page, the environmental impact of felled trees pales in comparison to the environmental impact of a plastic tree.
Filling in data that I consider typical for Ventura County, the calculator concludes that consuming a felled tree would generate just over 5 pounds of CO2 equivalent per year, while an artificial tree would generate almost 70 pounds per tree. This means that an artificial tree must be reused more than thirteen times to reduce its carbon impact to the level of a tree shipped from Washington to Ventura County.
The Omni Calculator takes into account another category of environmental impacts from felled Christmas trees. Every year the tree must be thrown away. If the tree is thrown away in a landfill, it will rot for lack of oxygen, creating methane gas, which is much more powerful than carbon as a climate-changing pollutant.
Fortunately, the alternative to an artificial tree in Ventura County is not a tree destined for the landfill. After Christmas, used trees can be cut apart and recycled, along with yard waste, food scraps and wood in curbside waste carts. There will also be several drop-off points available for businesses and others that do not have a waste disposal service.
While it doesn’t save a tree, recycling paper or reusing an artificial tree often enough to offset the environmental costs has several benefits. Recycling and reuse save resources, reduce pollution and save energy in production or agricultural processes. Recycling and reuse also improve a local economy by replacing the cost of landfill with the benefit of producing useful materials.
David Goldstein, an environmental resources analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Eco Tip: Cut-down Christmas trees can be greener than artificial options
