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Article: No Saplings for Santa; Drought Is Killing Christmas Tree Seedlings, Threatening Supplies Years Down the Road
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- August 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The phone call from a despondent Paeonian Springs Christmas tree
farmer came in to the Loudoun forester's office in early June.
The hapless farmer had bought a lot and planted five acres in
Christmas trees. It was to have been his first crop.
But by early June, most of his Christmas tree seedlings were dead
or dying, said Dana Malone, the Loudoun-area forester with the
Virginia Department of Forestry who took the call.
"He asked me to come over and give him a prognosis," Malone said.
"It looked pretty grim. It would be a disaster to have planted a new
Christmas tree farm this year."
On Christmas tree farms throughout Loudoun and Fauquier counties,
the death toll for seedlings--typically 6 ...