High Country Christmas tree growers say good trees are plentiful despite Helene

Fraser fir farmers in the High Country have faced challenges in recent years, including climate change, root rot and this year of course, Helene. The High Country’s economy saw its important fall foliage season all but wiped away in Helene’s wake. 

But as we get closer to the holidays, local growers and agricultural experts say farms are open for business and ready for the season.

Justin Whitehill, who runs the Christmas tree genetics program at North Carolina State University, says he’s hearing about impassable roads, prices skyrocketing, and growers not having enough to offer. But from what he's seen, he says those things are simply not true, and the rumors could be hurting growers during a time of need.

"The mountains have already suffered enough this year, and the Christmas tree harvest this year is really being looked at as a ray of hope," he says. "There are choose-and-cut farms, there are retail lots, there are Christmas tree growers who have trees ready to go."

North Carolina ranks second in the nation in real tree production. It’s a key economic driver in the state’s mountain counties.

If anyone would know about the conditions for this year’s crop, it would be Waightstill Avery. He grows Fraser firs on land that’s been in his family for more than 200 years.

Avery says when the North Toe River jumped its banks during Helene, it destroyed about 60,000 of his trees.

But he has others that were planted higher that fared well through the storm. He wants people to know the High Country roads are open and so are the area’s tree farms.

“Buying Christmas trees helps the whole community," he says. "It’s not just one family. So Avery County, Ashe County, Watauga County, that’s lots of trees and that supports a whole lot of families.”

Avery doesn’t think prices will go too high because that would turn people to buying an artificial tree.