Christmas tree growers battle poachers (with Urine????)

[The Straight Story]

Christmas tree growers battle poachers
Staff and agencies
12 December, 2006


By ANNA JO BRATTON, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. - While many Christmas trees sparkle with tinsel and lights during the holiday season, some reek of fox urine or wear a splatter of pink stain.

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for example, evergreens are sprayed with a fox urine mixture and tagged with a warning to discourage tree thieves.

When the tree is out in the cold, the smell isn‘t noticeable, Baird said. But once the tree is inside and starts to warm up...

Live Christmas trees have made a resurgence with consumers in the past three years, said Rick Dungey of the National Christmas Tree Association. While no one tracks the number of thefts, some believe the increased demand has fueled pine pilfering.

http://www.localnewswatch.com/skyvalley/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=34118

The war on Christmas??? I think it should be more on the war about what Christmas has become. Ya know, this week I am going to watch it's a wonderful life a few more times. Maybe toss in 'A Christmas Carol' as well.

Just damned crazy if ya ask me....

[Bluebear]

1. For when urine a festive mood. nt

[The Straight Story]

2. Oh...that's so bad it's good :) (nt)

[Squatch]

3. I know that stuff well. Use it as a cover scent when bow hunting.

:puke:

[hootinholler]

9. Yep, pretty strong stuff...

Are the poachers individuals or commercial?

-Hoot

[The Stranger]

4. Why not preserve the trees and the ecosystems and use a fake tree?

Is Inhofe leading a resurgence in chopping down trees as part of the "War for Christmas"?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. I love real trees, but I will use a fake until

I can afford a live tree that can be planted after. More $$$ than I can handle right now though.

[Wickerman]

6. Christmas tree farming when done right can be beneficial

to the ecosystem. Most, sadly do not.

We cut and buy our trees from some old family friends who've been in the business for 30 some years. They raise their trees organically on reclaimed pasture. My personal preference is to use a real tree that is then ground up and mulched or composted at our city composting site than to buy a petro-chemical tree. YMMV.

[havocmom]

13. Benefit to the ecosystem more with real trees/tree farms

Fake trees made of what? Requiring how much generated power to create?

Real trees, grown on farms, are a help, they help clean air, fight desertification, and use solar power ;) Tree farms should be encouraged.

[The Stranger]

15. Make a fake tree from whatever you want -- use it every year.

Thus, there is no need to chop down another tree every year just to use it for a week or two.

[havocmom]

23. Plastic = petro-chemicals. Metal = Mining, Either require generated power to make

Tree farms enable people to stay on land they may otherwise have to sell to housing developers. Trees do more for the air than urban sprawl does, and they run on solar, require no petro-chemical or mining corporation involvement. While trees do require water, they are not overly fussy about it's purity and they do give it back into the atmosphere. Enough trees will make a place more moist in the long run.

Christmas trees are a renewable resource, which can be done in ways which enhance the environment and wildlife.

As to using them for a couple weeks? No, most towns and cities have recycling for trees after Christmas. Turned to mulch for parks, sunk into lakes for fish habitat, composted for soil enhancement with less chemical fertilizers used as a result.

Real trees have many incarnations.

And if you can get them from a local grower, all the better, less oil involved in transport.

[laundry_queen]

14. Fake trees are worse.

Most don't have a lifespan much longer than 10 or so years. They are made with petroleum products. When thrown away, they will NOT degrade like a real tree would. Not to mention the offgassing from the chemicals in the tree.
Christmas tree farming is usually a small family business, and done right, can be very beneficial to the ecosystem.

[The Stranger]

16. Chopping down so many trees every year, many of which are not even used,

and those which are, for only a week or two, seems hardly environmentally friendly.

The plastic ones will last as long as you need them, and if you don't like plastic, make it out of something else. Be creative. It is not as if you have to do what everyone else does.

[laundry_queen]

19. Well

the way my grandfather did it, was he didn't cut the tree down all the way to the bottom. More often than not, the tree would keep growing. Not to mention, all the trees that are chopped down are replaced that spring. His Christmas tree farm was on old farmland that had been abandoned because it was in a low lying area. To keep away the rodents, he simply put mesh on the bottom of the tree trunks, and didn't do much else in the way of pest control. Now-a-days, he'd be called an organic tree farmer.
Also, in our town, they do a mulching program for thrown out real Christmas trees. They all go into the wood chipper and are turned into mulch. They aren't left to rot in the landfill.
And I'm not very creative. :P Most people I know aren't. Most people replace their plastic trees, and "upgrade" every few years. Almost everyone I know is replacing theirs right now with the "pre-lit" ones. Most people throw their old ones out (I donated mine).

Edited to add: I don't like those parking lot tree lots, you're right, all those trees cut down, some never to be sold. My grandfather only did direct sales, so only the trees that were being used were cut down.

[havocmom]

24. New ones planted for each one chopped

Often more than one planted for each one chopped. Trees are renewable, unlike the materials used to make fake trees.

[sweetheart]

28. species and density

Generally, a monoculture of spruce and lodgepole pine planted at 1.5m centers
is entirely different than a reforestation of a whole variety of species planted
at 3m centers.

The farmed trees are not planted in a configuration to become old growth forest
even if nobody cut them down. Tree farming is an economy in a rural area, must
likely a red state where some poor republican on welfare had to get up off his fat
ass to cut down a tree on his subsidized ground; using his subsidized transport to
ship it to you.

By the time you've paid for it once in subsidies and again in street price, that
tree farm is got some good business.

[sandnsea]

18. Fake flowers, fake pumpkins, fake yards

Why don't people get in an uproar over pumpkin patches or flower or grass growers? It's all the same thing, in fact the trees are probably more environmentally friendly than these other growers.

[Skidmore]

7. So when this idiot takes these trees to market or allows people to come in and cut them,

does all that fox urine just disappear by magic? I mean, if they are stinky in poachers' homes, they'll for sure stink up the paying customer's home. This guy is going to put himself out of business fast.

[TexasProgresive]

8. Your head is stuck in the box - get it out and get some air

The treated trees are likely not for sale for this year. The urine and dye will be gone by the next Christmas. The people who grow trees for Christmas want to have them in all marketable sizes each year and so hold back trees of various ages. You can't grow a Christmas tree in one year.

[LiberalEsto]

10. The NJ Turnpike Authority has done this for years

About 25 years ago the turnpike people started spraying roadside evergreen tree with something that was undetectable in the cold, but that began reeking when brought into a warm house. Otherwise thieves would cut and remove the young trees at holiday time.

[dysfunctional press]

11. but if it doesn't stink until it warms up in the house...

isn't it too late to save the tree?

[LiberalEsto]

12. Well, they'll never do it again

and the word does get around to others. Also, the spraying is highly publicized.

[Deb]

17. Curious, how is fox urine collected? (never mind)

I can't seem to find it on the net.

on edit- http://www.peta.org/living/AT-Winter1998/urine.html

Gross. Thankfully we bought our fake tree used at a local yard sale.

[TahitiNut]

20. From fox urinals, of course.

:silly: (Somewhere in Mexico, Vincente is peeing on a tree ...)

[The Straight Story]

21. good question, no idea :) (nt)

[maine_raptor]

22. It's done with great care and understand of the ways of nature.

Male foxes are captured and kept in a specially designer enclosure consisting of a large room containing a beer keg, urinal, and TV screen. There they are feed mass quantities of salted peanuts and beer, while being mesmerized by some sporting event on the Faux Sports Channel. In keeping with humane handling methods, these foxes are released back into the wild the next morning. The urinal is then emptied.

:rofl:

[havocmom]

25. I hear one of the fav fox TV shows is Hunters Dumbest Bloopers

on FAUX

[LiberalEsto]

26. From Fox News, naturally

I hear they get a good price for it.

[zreosumgame]

27. Ok that's it, artificial tree from now on

that is just gross