Drought is hurting Christmas tree farmers - CBS4 - WHBF Quad Cities, IL-IA News Weather Sports

Drought is hurting Christmas tree farmers

By: Katie Jones

kjones@cbs4qc.com

Mother Nature is turning in to quite the Grinch. Christmas tree farmers are hurting from the heat. We're still a few months away from the holiday season but local tree farmers said all Summer they've been keeping a close eye on their crops. Scott Weber said since opening in 1955, his Christmas forest has had its fair share of weather woes and this year is no exception.

"We lost about 95 to 100 percent of our trees we planted this year and about 80 percent of the one's we had last year," Scott Weber owner of Weber's Christmas Forest said.

Weber said that will really hurt ten years down the road when trees are usually mature enough to sell. Besides the countless hours of labor, the drought has also cost him a lot of cash.

"I had some canon fur I was experimenting with and they were 3 dollars a tree and I planted a thousand of them," Weber said.

He's now giving the already grown trees some extra TLC and Weber said leaving them be, is what's best.

"We realized it was getting exceptionally dry so we left the trees alone because anytime you inflict any damage the trees would have to protect themselves and lose moisture," Weber said.

 So, if you head out to Weber's Christmas Forest this holiday season, he said you'll have plenty of options.

"You might have a few wild ones here and there you may not have the perfect top on all of them. We're still letting the trees recover and I'd rather give you a tree that you'll enjoy the whole season than a perfect tree that's going to fall apart," Weber said.

Weber said most of his costs from the drought were absorbed through fuel and transportation and he doesn't think tree prices will have to go up.