Instead, the owner of Ferguson Tree Farm in Union is looking at the brown needles of dead fir trees and gaps in the lines of seedlings from the 1,000 trees he lost to the drought. Ferguson said the 3,000-4,000 mature trees that survived are too damaged to hold their needles much longer. “I’m not even going to open,” Ferguson said.
“I lost hundreds of mature trees.” Despite record rainfall in October, the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region has received just 28.33 inches of rain this year, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington. That’s 8.19 inches below normal, making 2007 one of the region’s 10 driest years on record. With 54 days of 90-degree-plus temperatures, 2007 was also the hottest year recorded at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
“If you go out to look for Christmas trees there’s going to be more mature trees that are damaged (than in past years),” said DJ Scully, a University of Kentucky extension agent based in Campbell County. Carl Halen, who has been growing Christmas trees since 1964, isn’t opening his Hamilton farm this year because of damage to his Norway and blue spruces. “This is the worst year I’ve ever seen,” said Halen, who estimates he has 20,000 or less trees.
“Even though (a tree) may look great, unless you water it regularly, it’s going to drop its needles once it gets inside.” Harold Rash lost one-fourth of the 200 pine trees on his 5-acre farm in West Chester Township. He said he won’t open this year, giving the small trees that survived a chance to grow. Fraser, balsam and Douglas firs - along with Scotch, Virginia and white pines - are the top-selling Christmas trees according to the National Christmas Tree Association.