North Carolina's booming Christmas tree industry
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More than 3.2 million Christmas trees were grown and cut in North Carolina in 2022, making the state the nation's second-highest producer of Christmas trees that year, according to the most recent federal data available.
By the numbers: North Carolina is slightly behind Oregon — the country's largest producer of trees — where 4.8 million Christmas trees were grown and cut down in 2022, per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The big picture: Extreme weather affects the Christmas tree industry, with drought conditions in 2021 hurting tree harvests in the Western U.S. and floods from Hurricane Helene damaging trees in North Carolina this year, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Between the lines: While cutting down trees may not seem like an environmentally friendly choice, "real Christmas trees are recyclable, making them a zero-waste product," says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.
- The Nature Conservancy writes that Christmas tree sales support farms that grow 10 times more Christmas trees than the number cut down each year, making the industry a net positive for fighting climate change.
- Plus, "real trees don't require the intensive carbon emissions that it takes to produce and ship artificial trees," the environmental nonprofit says.
The intrigue: This year's White House Christmas Tree came from Cartner Christmas Tree Farm in Newland, WCNC reports.
- The state also provided the White House a tree in 2023 and 2021, according to CBS17.