Hurricane Helene didn’t just flood Western North Carolina in September 2024, but it washed away years of hard work and future holiday memories for Christmas tree farmers in the area. This year, those farmers are set on bringing business back.
North Carolina is the nation’s second-largest producer of Christmas trees and is home to the famous Fraser fir, which the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association describes as the best species to be selected as the White House Christmas Tree.
HISTORY OF WHITE HOUSE CHRISTMAS TREES
For decades, in Newland, North Carolina, Waightstill Avery III has grown Fraser firs on his family farm, along with other crops like corn and potatoes.
The Christmas tree business is a “long-term investment,” according to Avery, as some trees aren’t ready to be cut for nearly a decade – or longer.
“It seems to be something you either love it or you hate it,” said Avery, who has been working every day since Helene washed through his farm to recoup his loss.
“As a tree grower, we probably took the biggest lick,” Avery said, adding that his farm lost “right around 64,000 trees.”
AVERY FARMS JOIN FOX & FRIENDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER HELENE DEVASTATION
Avery said Helene caused about 20 acres of his farm to be under eight feet of water – years of hard work now covered in silt and mud.
In addition to the tens of thousands of trees lost, Avery said farm machinery and equipment were damaged, as well as the office and his home, which sits just feet from the farm.
“We just moved into our home 3 weeks ago,” Avery said. “Total – when you figure the trees, we lost, equipment and everything else – we were about 4, 4.4 million dollars.”
When asked how the farm could come back from that, Avery replied, “Well, it was money that would’ve been made, it’s just not been made. So you just accept it and move on.”
Avery said he’s not sure what the full impact of Helene will be for a while, but tree supply is expected to fluctuate over the next six to seven seasons.
SMALL FARMS REBUILD AFTER HELENE DEVASTATION
Joey Clawson, another Christmas tree grower just an hour away in Boone, North Carolina, said his family farm wasn’t damaged at all.
“Fortunately, with my farm we didn’t have creeks and rivers that we had to cross to get to our fields of trees,” Clawson said.
However, Clawson says growers were scrambling to get to their farms days after the storm blew through.
“They were panicking trying to get to their fields,” Clawson said. “Having to make makeshift bridges, bulldozers to just dig out and drive through the water if it’s not too high.”
He even said that a few farmers “were just wiped out.”
“Farmers have huge bills to pay every year. Farming is — it’s not for everybody,” Clawson said, adding that farming is a round-the-clock business and “you’re hoping for a paycheck.”
When Christmas tree season opened last year, Clawson said the community helped many farmers impacted by Helene get through it, and so far this year, business is holding steady.
“We’ve seen a resurgence of younger generations wanting a real tree,” said Clawson. “We’re really optimistic the next few years will be really good and increase sales.”
