Tree Farmer Makes Season Merrier

  • Duke Wagatha drives down from northern Michigan each year to sell his Christmas trees. While in Ann Arbor, he and his crew live in this 1951 Vagabond trailer. (Photo by Mark Brush)

It’s that time of year again – parking lots across the country are filled with Christmas trees. Just about one out of every three people who celebrate Christmas buys a live tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent some time with one tree grower in the height of tree-selling season:

Transcript

It’s that time of year again – parking lots across the country are filled with Christmas trees. Just about one out of every three people who celebrate Christmas buys a live tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent some time with one tree grower in the height of tree-selling season:


(Sound of generator, saws, people chatting)


It’s a crisp afternoon at this Christmas tree lot. That generator you hear is powering the electric saws. The guys trim up the base of the tree so it’ll fit on a tree stand. Their hands are all blackened with sap and dirt from wrestling hundreds of trees off of the flat bed truck. They take the bundled trees, open them up, and stick them onto stands. They’ve created a makeshift forest in the middle of this strip mall parking lot. Customers wander through the forest searching for the perfect tree.


(sound of talking)


Duke Wagatha runs this tree lot in southeastern Michigan. He appears with his trees each year from his farm up north.


“We get here the weekend before Thanksgiving. Takes us probably about a week, or five days to set up. With the idea of opening the day after Thanksgiving. We like to let folks get one holiday out of the way and then we start on the next…”


He calls his business “Flat-Snoots Trees.” You couldn’t tell from looking at his face now, but he calls it “Flat-Snoots” to make light of a broken nose he suffered in high school.


Duke’s coveralls are all tarnished with pine needles and sap. And when he moves, you hear ringing from the bells on his hat. He moves between the trees in his parking lot forest telling his customers jokes and filling their heads with visions of Scotch Pine, Fraser Firs, and Blue Spruce.


Margaret Jahnke has been buying trees from Duke for more than six years.


“He just makes it really personable – and there was one year, it was really kind of warm and he had his Hawaiian shirt on and his straw hat, and he was out here partyin’ away! And I’m like, ‘Whoa!’ It’s fun to come… you know just to run in… you know to talk to him. And they’re really helpful!”


While they’re away from home, Duke and his crew live in a 1950’s vintage trailer. The trailer’s paint is faded, but Duke spruces it up for the holidays with wreaths and pine boughs. And when you step inside, the old lamps and rustic furniture make it seem as if you’ve stepped back in time.


(Sound of trailer door opening)


“Whooo! It feels better in here doesn’t it? I needed a good excuse to get in here.”


The trailer also doubles as his office. Customers pay for their trees in here, and on occasion, they’ll have a complimentary nip of what Duke calls his “bad Schnapps.” Duke is from Mesick, a small rural town in northern Michigan. Christmas tree farming is big business in Michigan. The state is second only to Oregon in the number of acres that are in Christmas tree production.


Duke calls himself a small-time grower. He’s a carpenter by trade, but his work tends to dry up in the long winter months.


“It’s not enough to make a living for me and my family year-round, but it’s a good extra source of income… and, uh… winters are tough up there, so if you make a little bit of extra money – winters are tough and expensive. Living in the country, you know, like anybody, you got propane bills and all that, and it’s a little colder up there, so to make a little bit of money going into winter is pretty nice.”


A lot of work went into growing the trees that are now on his lot. Each summer, workers plod through the rows and rows of trees, swinging razor sharp machetes. They trim each tree to give them that classic, symmetrical, Christmas tree shape. And after about ten years, the trees are ready for harvest. They’re cut, they’re run through a baling machine, and they’re loaded onto trucks and shipped down to the lots.


(sound of customers on lot)


Even though there’s a jovial atmosphere on the lot, there’s also a sense of urgency. After all, Duke only has a few weeks to sell trees that in many cases have taken more than ten years to grow. And while selling the trees is an important part of Duke’s income, he gets something else out of it. He enjoys making connections with the people who wander through his tree lot.


“Sometimes you get grumpy folks coming in, and it’s usually just because they’re overwhelmed with shopping… it’s cold out… they didn’t wear their long underwear or whatever… but we can usually get them turned around, you know, we have a little fun with them… like I say if we have to bring them to the trailer and have a shot of bad Schnapps with ’em, hey, that’s just fine too.”


It’s closing time at the tree lot. The workers are headed for a warmer space. Right now, Duke’s trailer is filled with his extended family and friends…


(sound of door opening)


“Come on in! This is Duke’s family… it’s warm in here, huh?”


Duke will continue to sell his trees right up until Christmas Eve. Then, he’ll drive home to spend a few days with his family before he comes back to tear the lot down.


“It’s kind of like the circus coming to town. You build up your tree lot, you almost build like, well, I wouldn’t say a village, but a little spot where there was nothing, just, you know, an asphalt parking lot. And when we leave, there’s nothing left – we sweep ‘er up and go – so it’s almost like a mirage… were those guys really here?”


(sound of laughter)


And so, they spring to their trucks and drive out of sight, knowing they’ve helped make the season merry night after night.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links

Repelling Christmas Tree Thieves

  • Landscape Manager Jeff Culbertson sprays a Scots pine with thief repellant containing fox urine. The smell isn't too noticeable outdoors... but when a thief drags a conifer indoors, the repellant heats up and makes for a memorable Christmas. Photo by Nanci Ann McIntosh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Evergreen trees grace forests, campuses, and lawns around the region. Much to the dismay of landscapers and gardeners, some of those trees disappear this time of year, stolen by someone who may not quite get the idea of Christmas cheer. But some universities have found a way to fight tree rustlers. It involves a foul-smelling concoction that makes thieves regret taking a tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has the recipe for this nasty, yet effective repellant:

Transcript

Evergreen trees grace forests, campuses, and lawns around the region. And much to the dismay of landscapers and gardeners, some of those trees disappear this time of year, stolen by someone who may not quite get the idea of Christmas cheer. But some universities have found a way to fight tree-rustlers. It involves a foul-smelling concoction that makes thieves regret taking a tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has the recipe for this nasty, yet effective repellant:


About fifteen years ago, landscape managers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had a big problem. Tree thieves were cutting down the best conifers on campus. And the landscapers were getting calls from local residents, whose trees were also disappearing. Dennis Adams is a forester at the University of Nebraska.


“It’d be, you know, trees that have good Christmas tree form, so blue spruce, concolor fir, some of the pines – white pine, scotch pine.”


Some thieves were easy to track. Jeff Culbertson is a landscape manager at the university. He says students were stealing trees during Thanksgiving break… and they weren’t always perfect criminals…


“We’ve had instances where the students, I guess didn’t do a good job or didn’t think anybody cared, but you could find the dragged marks of the tree through the snow to their fraternity or dormitory or something like that so in those cases I think it was pretty easy for them to figure out where the tree went.”


Campus trees are worth hundreds of dollars, so the university was eager to find a solution. Dennis Adams discovered a solution… literally. He found the recipe in an old magazine… 1 part glycerine, 10 parts water, and 2 parts… fox urine.


Jeff Culbertson says the fox urine makes Christmas tree thieves think twice…


“It doesn’t really smell like skunk. Maybe like an extremely strong cat urine sort of smell. Or dog, something that’s very concentrated. But you know normally you’re not going to smell that. So it’s pretty pungent.”


Culbertson says since the University of Nebraska began spraying conifers in the 80s, they haven’t lost many trees. He sprays 50 to 100 Christmas-tree size evergreens each year. He used to wear a plastic spray suit, but now he just keeps the wind at his back.


“When I do the fox urine, I don’t have many volunteers that want to help me with that. So I take on upon myself to do it. They mostly stand away from me, and they probably don’t talk to me too much that day either.”


Culbertson says there is one problem with this technique… when it’s cold out, you don’t notice the smell. So he started adding a dye… he sprays blue or red stripes on the trees where he sprays the fox urine. He says it makes the trees that much less attractive, and serves as a warning. And each year, the university lets the local papers know they’re spraying fox urine again.


But if a thief still chops down a tree and drags it into his house … Culbertson says he won’t likely do it again.


“It would be a smell that you’d have a hard time getting rid of.”


Culbertson recommends the method to anyone with a lot of trees to protect. He says the repellant is pretty affordable, and normally wears off after the Christmas season. Most of the supplies, sometimes even fox urine, can be bought at a garden store.


“I use a small, 3 gallon bottle sprayer, typical sort of garden sprayer people would purchase at the hardware store, garden center… And I try to use hot water. The glycerin is very syrupy kind of like corn syrup. So it helps to loosen it up, heat it up and make it less thick. I mix it up, take it out, and just spray the trees by hand.”


Both Jeff Culbertson and Dennis Adams think thieves are just looking for a cheap tree. But Adams still finds the thefts a little unbelievable.


“I think people have to be pretty desperate to steal a tree for Christmas. That seems like it’s kind of in the anti-Christmas spirit to steal.” (Laughs)


Other campus managers, meanwhile…have cooked up their own people repellant. The University of Idaho adds a few ounces of skunk scent. It makes their mix even more memorable.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.