No-Kill Christmas: A Non-Partisan Idea

[Nosmo King]

Trees are a renewable cash crop, for the people who cultivate and feed their families with the proceeds from them.

Even a vegan can't have a no-kill meal.

Wake up, people.

We have tree nurseries around here and they seem full each year. Personally, I went with a fake tree a few years ago. Always swore I'd never do that, but hate the needles in the carpet and the expense each year. Plus my cats kept climbing them and chewing on the branches.

Obama still wants a Christmas tree tax so that might deter some people.

I love the smell of fresh trees and never felt guilty since the next year, another tree was grown in it's place.

I live in the Midwest and there are nothing but trees as far as the eye can see. No shortage here, folks. I know liberals like to think that the land is bare because of the mean old tree killers, but honestly that is far from the truth and always has been.

I'm a Liberal who always puts up a cut tree. There are small farmers here in the upper Ohio River Valley who cannot farm their entire parcel of land. The topography (which looks like an unmade bed) and our clay rich shale soils conspire to keep acres of otherwise arable farmland fallow. As it turns out, spruces, firs and pines love to grow where no other crop can.

The trees are harvested and replaced. The farmers can make a much needed dollar, the plastics and petroleum used to make an artificial Christmas tree is saved for tomorrow and the Christmas tree is the freshest possible.

I tag my tree on Veteran's Day and have it cut down before my very eyes two weeks prior to Christmas Day. Between the field and the tree holder, my tree waits about 45 minutes.

 

[Silhouette]

I just think if you don't have to kill a whole tree for the 6 or 7 years it needs to regrow from a sapling, even on a tree farm, then don't. Just carve a lower branch that's shaped like a tree and prop it up against a wall and hang ornaments. Same green smell, same look, lower profile and better atmosphere for the earth.

Our planet is in pretty rough shape, no matter what the republicans are chanting in a drone to the opposite. Over that drone I can hear the earth gasping. Well, she'll survive. We won't though..

Many people grow Christmas trees like a crop. That's how they make their living, or at least part of it.

Do you also propose to stop lumber companies from harvesting trees?

If trees are replanted after they are harvested there is little impact on the total tree biomass that grows every year.

Your plan is stupid. It will only put a lot of people out of work and it won't help the environment one bit.

Yes, quarter sawn dimensional lumber is EXACTLY like cutting a lower branch for a christmas tree. Strawman much?

I cut trees every year for fire wood. I cut as few as possible to supply just long enough to make it through Winter in the old woodstove.

A christmas tree "farmer" could do exactly the same thing, for far less investment over time. He could cut lower branches and haul them to a lot to sell just like conical trees. If he offered them at a lower price like he could and still make much more profit, he could out compete the other guy down the block.

If the trend catches on, these tree farmers would have incentive to leave their trees in the ground for much longer, giving that mature tree with much more foliage and air-conditioning potential, the chance to really grow into a true timber tree, speaking of lumber. All that pruning of lower branches as it grows means that the christmas tree farmer has now spurred himself a double industry. When a tree is mature enough and delimbed enough, he cuts it down and sends it to the mill to be made into actual lumber with clearer grain because it was routinely delimbed. Much fewer knots and worth much more money at a higher grade. My grandfather used to own a lumber yard so I know a little bit about what I'm talking about.

No, my idea isn't stupid