Christmas tree sellers hoping for a jolly season

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Walking through his Christmas tree lot on Bozeman's Main Street, nursery owner Jerry Cashman picks up a balsam fir twig and crushes it.

The pungent fragrance evokes both the scent of the forest and memories of Christmases past.

Thousands of Bozeman-area households will be enjoying that sensory experience as they set up natural Christmas trees in their homes this holiday season.

Gallatin County -- where the beauty of the mountains and forests is one of the area's big selling points -- seems to be bucking a dramatic national trend toward artificial Christmas trees.

While Christmas tree sales have fallen off elsewhere, here they seem to be holding their own, though barely.

The Gallatin National Forest last year sold 4,022 permits to hardy souls who wanted to cut down their own Christmas trees. That was up by only 20 permits from the year before, despite the area's population growth.

Thousands more natural trees are purchased pre-cut, either from for-profit Christmas tree lots, grocery stores and hardware stores, the cut-it-yourself Rocky Creek Farm, or the Bozeman Noon Optimists' lot, which raises money for needy kids.

Nationally, however, fewer Americans want to bother with the hassle and mess of real trees.

The National Christmas Tree Association has reported that 23 million American households put up a natural tree in 2003 -- a decline of 10 million or more from a decade ago.

Meanwhile, nearly 63 million households erected artificial trees -- a 41 percent jump from 1999, according to the Associated Press. Most artificial trees are made in China.

National tree-growers launched a $1 million ad campaign, tied to "The Polar Express" movie and aimed at young families, to encourage the idea of selecting a real tree as a family tradition.

There was a glimmer of hope for the nation's Christmas tree growers last year. It was the first year that the industry has seen sales increase since 1999.

In Bozeman, Cashman Nursery has been selling Christmas trees for 28 years. Cashman said his sales grew gradually until 12 or 15 years ago, when they hit a plateau. He attributes that mainly to artificial trees.

"Our sales haven't really declined -- they have a little bit," Cashman said, standing in his lot across from Bozeman High School. He said he sells about 1,500 trees a season, more than reported by other sellers.

"There's more people (in Bozeman), but there's more competition."

But for his brother, who operates a similar business in Bismarck, N.D., in the last 15 years sales have dropped in half.

Cutting trees at local ranches, selling trees and making wreathes gives several weeks of work to about Cashman 10 employees.

This weekend is usually the busiest of the year, said Lou Hannum, 62, who sells trees from his family's Tuscor Ranch tree farm in far western Montana at the Gallatin Valley Mall.

For 15 years, Hannum has been driving the 325 miles to Bozeman, taking advantage of the area's strong economy. For many years, he set up shop at the now-defunct Gibson's store.

Three days before Thanksgiving, his family sets to work harvesting. Then they drive over three moving vans full of fresh-cut firs, pines and spruce.

Hannum said they usually sell 1,100 to 1,200 trees, but he used to sell 1,400 at Gibson's.

"It really depends on the amount of snow," Hannum said. "If we had a 2-foot snow next week, we'd sell out, because people can't get out and get the wild ones."

One marketing tool that's been successful, he said, is mailing past customers newsletters each winter, with news from the tree farm and a coupon for 10 percent off.

"People love that coupon," he said. That's help build a core clientele of about 900 families.

The tree-farm business is tough, and a lot of people are getting out of it, Hannum said. Growing trees sounds easy -- seedlings may cost as little as 45 cents and full-grown may sell for $40 or more. But it takes eight to 12 years to grow a Christmas tree.

Growers have to contend with drought, weed control, labor costs, blight infections and wildlife.

"Ten years ago, we planted a couple thousand (fir seedlings)," he said. "The elk came in and ate them down to the stump."

Despite such difficulties, it's a good business for someone who likes the outdoors, Hannum said. But it's wise to diversify -- his family also sells live trees to nurseries, does some logging and owns a mini-storage business.

One fringe benefit to selling Christmas trees is that it's an upbeat business.

"Everybody's happy," Hannum said. "Everybody's cheerful."

Pete Fay has been offering families a cheerful Christmas-tree experience for at least 16 years at his Rocky Creek Farm. Located east of Bozeman off the frontage road, it sells pick-it-yourself raspberries and pumpkins in other seasons.

Families looking for a Christmas tree can enjoy a hay ride, make cocoa, popcorn or S'mores around a campfire, and let kids drive a tractor.

Yet even people who have loved coming out to Rocky Creek to pick a tree in the past are turning to artificial trees, Fay said.

A big reason, he said, is that the whole family participates in putting up and decorating a tree, but moms are often left with all the take-down chores.

So he sells $1 tree bags, which can be placed around the tree base like a skirt during Christmas and then, at clean-up time, pulled up over the tree like a big pillowcase. It minimizes the mess, Fay said, though it's still not as easy as carrying an artificial tree to the basement.

It's a shame, Fay said, because real trees are a renewable resource that add oxygen to the atmosphere and are good for the environment.

Selling about 300 trees a season is a lot of hard work, said Fay, 63.

"We're holding steady," he said, "but it's not growing."

Owenhouse Ace Hardware store in downtown Bozeman sells both natural and fake trees.

"We sell more real trees than artificial trees," said owner Larry Bowman.

Owenhouse sells trees mainly as a way to bring customers downtown and offer "one-stop shopping."

"It's just part of Christmas for us," Bowman said. "It helps us out, it's fun to do."

Christmas trees are sold for a worthy cause by the Bozeman Noon Optimists at the Kmart parking lot.

This fall the Optimists gave 105 low-income children $70 each to spend at Kmart for winter jackets, boots, hats and gloves, said Ted Benson, 66, co-chair for tree sales.

Tree revenues also help needy kids throughout the year, for example by buying milk at school lunches.

The club has been selling Christmas trees for probably 50 years, Benson said. Today, they typically sell 700 to 800 a season.

That raises about $20,000, probably 10 times more than back in the early days, Benson said. Expenses for electricity, fencing and trees cost about $10,000. All their labor is volunteer.

An added bonus for the community is that the last couple of days before Christmas, when mainly Charlie Brown trees are left, the Optimists leave their lot open to anyone who wants a free tree. A locked, slotted box is left out with a "Donations Appreciated" sign.

It's surprising how many people leave money, Benson said.

"People in Bozeman are basically honest," said volunteer Glenn Buss, sounding like a true optimist.

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