Yule tree farms ebbing, adapting in state

Lexi Julian, 9, and her grandparents Carole and Ed Julian look for a tree at the Lollis Christmas Tree Farm near Rudy.
Lexi Julian, 9, and her grandparents Carole and Ed Julian look for a tree at the Lollis Christmas Tree Farm near Rudy.

Christmas tree farms in Arkansas are dwindling, but owners of those that remain say adaptation is key to staying in business.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Graphs showing Christmas tree information.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Lexi Julian, 9, takes a close look at a tree at the Lollis farm.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Bree Meyers, 11, and members of the Argueta family — Victoria, 1, mother Jessica, Christian, 3, and Adrian, 10 — watch Mick Darden trim the end of a Christmas tree at the Lollis Christmas Tree Farm near Rudy.

The shrinking number of tree farms in the state comes as no surprise to James Geisler owner of Geisler's Holiday Forest Christmas Tree Farm in Little Rock and president of the Arkansas Christmas Tree Growers Association.

Tree farms are labor intensive and many of the Arkansas owners are getting older with few, if any, younger farmers entering the business, he said. Still, those Arkansas tree farmers who have hung on have hit on some winning strategies, Geisler said, including adding agritourism elements to attract more customers and increase profits.

Like many others, Geisler, 74, has been scaling back at his farm in recent years. The state's growers association has about 20 active members who tend to be older and are either retired or running a tree operation part time, he said.

According to a survey conducted by the Nielsen Co. for the nonprofit American Christmas Tree Association, 79 percent of American households, or more than 94 million, put up Christmas trees in 2013, a 1.5 percent increase from the year earlier. Of those trees, 20 percent were "real" and 80 percent were artificial.

Nielsen polled 20,000 households for its survey. It found that on average consumers paid $44.11 for a fresh tree and $79 for an artificial one. Those who bought artificial trees were more likely to display more than one tree.

Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says its artificial Christmas trees are selling well this year but declined to give sales figures. The giant retailer offers 25 to 30 artificial tree options in a typical supercenter, company spokesman John Forrest Ales said. Consumers are typically selecting pre-lit trees, he said.

The Home Depot is the nation's biggest seller of fresh-cut trees and started offering them in 1987. The company projects it will sell 2.9 million fresh-cut trees in 2014, up from 2.8 million last year, Rick Pappas, the company's live-goods merchant for the Southwest, said in an email.

It offers eight online tree options for home delivery, up from five in 2013. The trees are available in heights of 4 1/2 to 7 feet and are cut within 24 hours of shipment. The company has sold fresh trees online since 2005.

In the face of competition from artificial trees, big-box retailers and large-scale tree operations in other states, many of Arkansas' remaining tree farmers have turned to agritourism.

Agritourism sites work to turn a visit to the farm to select a tree into an experience -- with extras like hot cocoa, wreaths, and hayrides. About a third of the growers association membership get trees from outside the state, the Fraser fir being a big seller, to supplement the Virginia pines typically grown in Arkansas, Geisler said.

Randy Motley, owner of Motley's Christmas Tree Farm in Little Rock is one of the earliest adopters of agritourism in Arkansas. He began in the wholesale Christmas tree business in 1982 but shifted to a select-and-cut operation in 1997, adding a pumpkin patch in 2008.

He said business at the tree farm has been brisk this year, with the good weather helping sales. Weather is important for agritourism operations that offer outdoor activities.

Folks can go to Motley's 10-acre farm and take a hayride or watch pigs race. They can select and cut their own trees, or pick from several varieties of pre-cut trees Motley gets from out of state. The operation has a Christmas store that sells tree stands, wreaths and decorations. He sells hundreds of pounds of fudge and Santa Claus visits every Saturday and Sunday.

"We've embraced the agritourism model," he said. "It's worked great for us."

In the 1980s, Arkansas saw a Christmas tree boom, and boasted a membership of more than 200 in the state growers association Motley said.

"A lot of them are at the age they're getting ready for retirement and getting out of the business," he said.

Younger farmers might consider Christmas tree farming as a way to diversify, Motley said, noting it didn't take a lot of capital, but it does take a lot of labor. Many young farmers embrace the concept of agritourism so adding a small Christmas tree operation might be a way to add additional income that could dovetail with existing operations, he said.

According to the USDA's Census of Agriculture for 2012, released earlier this year, Arkansas had 29 farms that sold trees, down from 51 in 2007. There were just shy of 13,000 farms total across the country in 2012, down from 13,366 five years earlier.

With a harvest of 6.4 million trees and 53,605 acres in production in 2012, Oregon ranked No. 1 for Christmas trees; North Carolina was second with 4.2 million trees. Arkansas ranked 39th in trees harvested with 5,806 for the same period.

A poll by Harris Interactive commissioned by the National Christmas Tree Association showed 85 percent of fresh trees purchased were pre-cut while 14 percent were purchased at a "cut my own" operation.

The poll indicated in 2013, most real trees, 33 percent, were purchased at chain stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot; choose-and-cut farms sold 27 percent; retail tree lots sold 22 percent; nursery/garden centers sold 8 percent; and 6 percent were sold by nonprofit groups like the Boy Scouts or churches.

Connie and Buddy Lollis are retired but run the 15-acre Lollis Christmas Tree Farm in Rudy, northeast of Fort Smith. They've been in the business for 25 years and say it's hard work.

"My husband says he works 13 months a year," she said.

She said the farm has grown over the years and they offer some extras, like wreaths made on site. The lure, she said, wasn't simply the Virginia pine trees grown at the farm but the experience of going to the country and cutting down a tree.

"We like to keep it simple," she said

Families have made visits to the farm a tradition that's been passed down through generations, with kids who cut their first tree at the Lollis farm returning with their children to enjoy the same experience years later. Many families have specific times they go to the farm, maybe the weekend after Thanksgiving or on a Sunday after church, Lollis said.

Some take a picnic lunch. Everybody gets a candy cane.

"Sometimes that candy cane means more to the children than the tree," Connie Lollis chuckled.

She said the lure of live trees is still strong, with some folks buying more than one of varying sizes to display around the house in foyers, children's rooms and even bathrooms. In addition to the memories and tradition that come with the fresh-cut trees, they also have a selling point artificial trees can't match -- the scent.

"It just smells like Christmas," Lollis said.

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