Harford County experienced its third-driest October, raising concerns for many Christmas tree farmers who are looking to the future.
With just 0.22 inches of rain for the entire month, it is the third-lowest total ever recorded for October since the Maryland State Climatologist Office began recording weather data in 1895. Along with long dry periods in 2024, experts say these climate effects can result in total failure of crop management if irrigation is unavailable.
“Last year, we had something similar over Harford by the end of November regarding drought intensity, but not in terms of the very little rainfall,” said Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas, state climatologist and associate research professor at the University of Maryland. “Since May, the state, and in particular the northeast of the state, has been experiencing above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation.”
“One could think of climate change as the main driver of the warmer summer and drying of the surface, but the fact is that it is difficult to say what is causing the circulation pattern responsible for the low precipitation this fall,” Ruiz-Barradas added.
Christmas tree farmers across Harford County, while unworried about their trees expected to be sold this holiday season, have raised concerns about their younger trees, which take seven or eight years to fully develop. Gary Thomas, owner of Winterfarm Christmas Tree Farm on St. Clair Bridge Road in Street, has had to take extra measures to keep the soil temperature down around his trees:
“Because of climate change and other conditions, Maryland is not the ideal place to grow a Fraser fir. They’re native of North Carolina at 4,000-feet elevation,” Thomas said. “So each tree should get a little scoop of mulch to keep around it, that helps. You can hand water, which we’ve done in the past, and you can let the grass grow a little taller to shade the soil.”
Thomas, former president of the Maryland Christmas Tree Association, stressed the importance of monitoring soil temperature in the warmer, drier months. He said if the temperature reaches above 95 degrees, it will kill a Fraser fir.
Winterfarm has belonged to Thomas’ family since the late 1800s. They switched from selling dairy products to tree products in 1961 after Thomas’ father began planting Scotch pine and white pine on the 54-acre property. Since then, the family has spent decades experimenting with different species to determine which grow best under Maryland’s increasingly harsh weather patterns.
It’s an experiment that is seemingly never-ending for tree farmers, as Thomas said future plantings will continue to look different from years past.
“We’re just going to have to replant more trees, and we’re going to have to plant trees that will be able to survive a drought better, like a Turkish fir or a Korean balsam fir or a Canadian fir,” Thomas said. “Fraser fir, they’re the first ones to go but hardest to grow, so we’re switching some of the land to different species so the mortality rate will be lower and the survivability rate will be higher.”
Winterfarm is home to more than 40,000 trees, of which Thomas said were individually hand-sheared between July and August to keep the branches layered for ideal ornament placement. With a staff of about 18 people on a day-to-day basis around the holidays, the farm sells roughly 2,000 trees per year, according to Thomas.
Twenty-five minutes away in Darlington, tree farmer Bob Chance has also had to make adjustments at his business, Environmental Evergreens, to account for Maryland’s changing climate.
Chance has been selling trees since 1985.
“I never thought about climate change in the ’60s or ’70s, and even now many people don’t think it’s authentic,” he said. “It’s not fabricated, and people are planting different species to cope with some of these increased temperatures and spotty rainfalls.”
Environmental Evergreens spans eight acres. Chance has one assistant foreman who works year-round and up to eight employees who help around the holiday season. The farm digs up trees for customers to replant, or allows them to cut down their own.
Like Winterfarm, Environmental Evergreens grows a variety of species, and success varies among them during Maryland’s drier and warmer stretches of weeks.
“Blue and Norway spruce are pretty hardy and resilient. They dig up easily and are happy in Harford County soils. Fraser fir is a challenge, and that’s the tree everybody wants,” Chance said. “This past summer, we had three days of 104 [degrees], and Frasers did not do well. They have to have adequate moisture, good drainage and they don’t like prolonged periods of freezing.”
Although they take longer to grow and tend to cost more money to the consumer, Chance said his most successful trees are therefore his hardiest, which include the spruce varieties along with white pine, Turkish fir, concolor fir and Douglas fir.
Chance implements a variety of techniques to combat Maryland’s droughts. Like Thomas, each tree is mulched at its base and soaker hoses stretch across a portion of his property for irrigation. Chance said his staff also mows close to the tree trunks to eliminate any competing plants and sometimes spreads rows of trees farther apart to give the trees more space to hold their own moisture.
Thomas and Chance expect to have their busiest days at their respective farmspost-Thanksgiving. But like other aspects of his business, Chance said the customer volume will also be dependent on the climate:
“We’re approaching our busiest weekend, but it’s all weather dependent. People don’t want to walk in the mud, they go to Home Depot,” he said.
Environmental Evergreens is at 3631 Berkley Road in Darlington and is open from noon to 4 p.m. during the week, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during weekends, according to its Facebook page.
Winterfarm is at 4336 St. Clair Bridge Road in Street. Hours of operation vary and can be found at winterfarmtrees.com.
Have a news tip? Contact Brennan Stewart at bstewart@baltsun.com, 443-800-5902, or @BrennanStewart_ on X.
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