X-mas Tree Drought
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

Christmas Tree farming is big business in the United States and tree farmers are up against many challengesŠfrom destructive pests, and disease to extreme weather. As Claire Holman reports today, Maine farmers are taking special care with their trees this December because of the region's drought.

With December underway, images of the holiday seasion are everywhere -- snowmen, elves, reindeer -- and Christmas Trees – as many as 35 million of them will sell in a single year. And like any other crop, Christmas Trees need moisture. In Searsmont, Maine, tree farmer Jim Robbins says 2001 has been one of the driest years he can recall:

"We’ve got trees up to as high as three feet tall that are dying this year because of the drought."

And in some plantations with shallow soils, up to 50% of the youngest trees have died. But plantations with deeper, heavier soils are doing fine, Robbins says. The trees which do well are harvested when they’re six to eight feet tall or about 8 years old. Jim Robbins says even trees which have weathered so many seasons are still vulnerable to excessive dryness.

"Sometimes the trees will be dry and won’t retain needles as well through the Christmas season, and in fact sometimes the trees will even split wide open when they cut them. In really severe drought years, seen trees split when they were growing."

So this Christmas Tree harvest season, tree farmers in states where there's been excessive dryness including some of the top holiday tree producing states like Washington and Oregon are counting on end-of-season rains.

It’s crucial between now and the time we harvest that we get a lot of rain, because if we get a lot of rain now and the trees absorb a lot of moisture, then they’ll be in good shape for harvest.

Recent rainy days in Maine have made Jim Robbins optimistic, and in the Pacific Northwest, the National Weather Service is predicting normal rainfall through January.

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