ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Saving Christmas in North Carolina, One Tree at a Time, After Hurricane Helene
The storm upended the Christmas tree industry in the state’s western region. Now, farmers and residents are eager for the comfort of the season’s rituals.
WHY WE’RE HERE
Curve around the mountain on a cool, wet morning, and you’ll see them rising through the fog: row after row of silver-green trees, their layers of soft needles and branches primed to hold a string of lights, a glittering bauble or a child’s handmade ornament.
The setting is Newland, a town about 90 minutes north of Asheville in western North Carolina. Field upon field in the region serves as an incubator for Fraser firs, among the most beloved American Christmas trees. But when the remnants of Hurricane Helene sent raging floodwaters through the mountains in late September, it upended the region’s Christmas tree industry months before the holidays.
The rain caused mudslides through the mountains, uprooting thousands of trees that had been at the end of a decade’s worth of growth and seedlings that had just started to take root. Homes, barns and facilities that supported the tree businesses were damaged or destroyed.
And many of the winding roads that made it possible to bring trees down from the mountains to suppliers became impassable in snarls of gravel and debris.
“The first time I drove over there and I saw it, I just sat there and cried,” said Rhonda Heath, recounting the storm-wrecked lot outside Asheville where she had sold Christmas trees for eight years. The damage forced her to sell trees at a new location this year.
In recent weeks, farmers have been salvaging their crops, navigating recently rebuilt roads and urging loyal customers, some of whom sell the trees on lots around the state and country, to follow through with their orders. And in the aftermath of a storm that killed about 100 people in the state and wrecked hundreds of homes and businesses, residents are particularly eager for the comfort of the season’s rituals.
“I needed to find beauty,” said George Handy, 70, an artist who recently made a point of visiting the extravagant holiday displays at the Biltmore Estate, a 19th-century mansion in Asheville. “I’ve seen so much ugly.”
As many as 30 million Christmas trees are sold each year across the country. About a quarter of them come from North Carolina, and nearly all of the state’s crop comes from the western region that was walloped by the storm.
The Fraser fir, a fragrant, deep green tree, grows only in the southern mountains of Appalachia. Nearly every Fraser fir distributed across the country comes from western North Carolina, thanks to its mountain climate and slightly acidic soil.
“You feel like you’re doing something good for society and the environment,” said Sam Cartner, one of three brothers who own Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm in Newland. Their parents opened the farm in the 1950s, and Mr. Cartner recalls dropping seedlings next to the holes where they would be planted when he was a toddler.
“Christmas trees are a huge symbol of family and joy and faith and hope, and all those good things that memories are made of in your family,” he said. “You’re making a product that contributes to the well-being of mankind.”
The industry has faced other challenges: invasive insects, the mounting expenses of operating farms, the encroachment of development and, of course, unpredictable weather. But nothing compares to the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene.
“It’s indescribable,” said Jennifer Greene, the executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association, a trade group. “Every farmer has their own situation, their own set of circumstances.”
While many farms were able to salvage the trees that were ready for market, the loss of seedlings could spell trouble moving forward. It takes about a decade to cultivate a full-sized Christmas tree.
One farmer, fielding a series of consolation calls after the storm, had to make clear time and again to his customers that they could still buy trees this year from his farm.
“It’s the assumption that we’re closed that’s nerve-racking,” said Jeanine Hasty, a field supervisor at a nearby Christmas tree farm who dreams of running her own some day.
The extensive road damage from the hurricane even delayed the formal selection of the White House Christmas tree from Mr. Cartner’s farm, an honor months in the making after the farm won a contest sponsored by the National Christmas Tree Association. But eventually, White House staff members were able to trek through the fields to pick one out.
The Cartner family named the chosen tree Tremendous because, as Mr. Cartner said, “that word encompasses all the good things that we’re experiencing from the generosity from other people.”
The family gathered one recent morning to watch workers carefully maneuver a crane to hoist the tree off its stump and onto the bed of a truck. An employee of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, dressed in the red-and-white garb for his part-time Santa Claus job, was on hand to drive it to Washington.
“It’s like a beacon, right?” said Jan Papdelis, a customer who had driven from Michigan with her husband, George, and their poodle, Ash, to pick up about 300 trees to sell back home.
At the Biltmore, some 70 miles from Mr. Cartner’s farm, staff members were still marveling at the return of guests after the estate closed for more than a month because of storm damage. Many had come to see the holiday decorations, including nearly three dozen Christmas trees.
Beyond drawing tourists, the holiday has special significance for the descendants of the Vanderbilt family, who built the mansion: The first time the house was opened to extended family and friends was for a Christmas Eve party in 1895. There are sap stains on the walls of the banquet hall, where a nearly 30-foot Fraser fir stands each year.
“It wasn’t just about Biltmore being open and getting our teams back,” said Chase Pickering, a fifth-generation member of the family and vice president of guest experience at the estate. “This community was going to need tourism to reboot, and that was going to be really important to our future.”
Preparations for the holiday season had already begun at the Biltmore when it became clear the hurricane was headed toward Asheville. It flooded much of the estate and surrounding village, stripping trees of their leaves and knotting branches into snarls of broken wood.
“It doesn’t feel like a huge priority when you’re just dealing with, OK, let’s get this tree off the road and let’s figure out what we’re going to eat today,” said Lizzie Whitcher, the floral manager who oversees the design and setup of each room in the mansion for the Christmas season.
Ms. Whitcher’s own home was damaged by fallen trees during the storm, and she wiped away tears as she spoke about the devastation her colleagues and neighbors had suffered.
“It’s not just, let’s just make it pretty and make a festive holiday,” Ms. Whitcher said, adding, “This is for our community. There’s such a difference between hurting without hope and hurting with hope.”
The post Saving Christmas in North Carolina, One Tree at a Time, After Hurricane Helene appeared first on New York Times.
