Christmas tree farmers across the Northeast are looking decidedly less merry as they struggle to keep their trees alive amid a weeks-long drought that has left vegetation brown, shriveled and crisp.
Nearly 60% of the Northeast was in drought last week, according to the US Drought Monitor, and more than a quarter of it was in severe to extreme drought conditions, having received little to no rain for weeks.
It’s the young trees at Christmas tree farms that are getting hit hardest, threatening to impact many farms’ tree sales in the future, since it takes about seven to eight years to grow a mature Christmas tree.
At Vandervalk Farm in Mendon, Massachusetts, the trees that are thriving right now were planted 10 to 15 years ago. Meanwhile, about 500 of the 2,700 Christmas trees the farm planted earlier this spring have already died from drought conditions.
“This year’s been too dry. They’re all yellow on the inside, the needles are falling off,” farm manager Chris Moran told CNN affiliate WBZ-TV. “No farm needs no water. Without water, we can’t grow anything.”
“We lost 20 to 25 percent of the trees that we planted this year,” he added, which means that “in ten years, I have 25 or 20 percent less of my product to sell.”
Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, agrees with the grim outlook.
“Christmas tree farms in the Northeast have, unfortunately, been hit with drought conditions that will impact the crop for several years to come,” Warner told CNN. “While consumers will be able to find their Christmas trees this season, some growers in the Northeast will not be able to harvest as many trees as they have in past non-drought years.”
Moran is not alone. Further south in Virginia, Darryl Schwartz, the owner of Whispering Pines Nursery, also said the farm has not received rain in five weeks. He’s had to water some trees by hand.
“It’s the first time in 40 years I’ve ever had to do that,” Schwartz told CNN affiliate WWBT-TV. “It was quite a worry this year going so long without rain just before harvest time.”
2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and follows an ongoing streak of record-shattering warm years. The growing concentration of planet-heating pollution in the atmosphere is drastically changing the weather and reshaping many things humans value the most, including one of Christmas’s most beloved centerpieces.
Moran said he blames the changing climate. His farm already saw a shortage after the area was hit with too much rain last year. This year, he’s had to deal with the opposite.