N.B. Christmas tree farm suffers the effects of months-long drought
The Red-Robin Christmas tree farm is usually a sea of green leading up to the holiday season, but not this year.
Gerald Redmond says his lot in Keswick Ridge has patches of burnt orange scattered throughout.
A wet spring paired with a historically dry summer has killed 80 to 90 per cent of the roughly 1,300 seedlings he planted in May.
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“I was a little concerned in the spring because of the excess moisture, and then I thought, well, this will be a pretty good summer for survival," Redmond said. "Well, I was wrong on that."
Most of the impact of the lost seedlings won’t be seen for six to 10 years, when they would normally be ready to be harvested and decorated.
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“It was a $2,000 to $3,000 loss, you know, of spring seedlings, but you know, in today's dollars it would translate in somewhere between, you know, $50,000, $75,000, $80,000 in the future.”
Redmond might be able to recover the potential loss next year by planting extra trees and hoping for better growing conditions.
But several years of summer drought could become a more significant problem, he said.
“It'll be interesting if I'm still kicking around in eight years, you know, I may be dealing with a problem of a lack of trees, you know, in the seven or eight-foot range.”
Redmond also lost larger trees to drought, which he hasn’t seen in his 25 years as a tree farmer.
“This is the first year that really I've seen, you know, a few hundred, probably larger trees that are either close to maturity, you know, for harvesting or a little younger that didn't make it.”
Gerald Redmond of the Red-Robin Christmas tree farm could lose thousands of dollars because of the death of the seedlings he planted this spring. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
He said searching for a Christmas tree this year shouldn’t be a burden for people because there are still lots to choose from.
He grows balsam fir, which he said are resilient, and he hopes their genetics can get them through dry conditions.
Gerald Redmond lost a few hundred large trees as well as seedlings, which is a first in the 25 years he's been growing. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
Don Fox is the director of the province’s air and water sciences branch and said current drought conditions are severe.
Fox said about half the province is in extreme drought, which is the third highest of the four categories of drought. Fox said the entire province is at least in the first category of drought.
As of late September, a small area in the southeast of the province faced an exceptional drought — the highest category.
At the same time, the northwest faced the least severe drought conditions.
“We normally would not see large areas in the extreme or exceptional drought categories," Fox said. "This is quite unique. It could be an event that would happen like, for example. once every 50 years on average."
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This article, written by Oliver Pearson, was originally published for CBC News.