The Christmas tree that you have been decorating for the last couple of days to celebrate the festival, took near about 10 years to grow around six feet in height. According to experts, a Christmas tree, which is usually considered to be a fast grower compared to other trees in general, takes around 10 years to become ready for cutting. There are several facilities around the world that grow the trees, cut it down once it reaches the ripe age and delivers it to millions of customers worldwide. Here is how Christmas tree farm looks like from up above.
This circled area is the picture of a massive Christmas tree industrial complex of the Noble Mountain Tree Farm, situated at Salem in Oregon.
Before cutting off the trees:
After cutting the trees:
The difference is striking. The area (circled) that was once overflowing with greenery, now lies barren. It will now remain so until the new seeds are being planted and the new saplings of Christmas tree grow.
You may think it's not much, however, the area is actually enormous. If you look closely (zoom in) you would understand actually how many trees were involved in this vicious cycle. Here is a high-resolution picture of a small area of the circled part, courtesy Google Maps. Only 50 square feet area of this place contains over hundreds of trees, reported Quartz.
As per the report, growing and selling Christmas tree is an industry that's worth billions of dollars. To reach the standard height of a Christmas tree, which is around six feet in height, a spruce, pine, or fir takes around 10 to 12 years. This year many places across the United Nations is witnessing a shortage in the supply of these trees and, in turn, extremely high prices as well. This is happening due to the cutbacks that the industry had to go through during the Great Recession.
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In 2016 the American Christmas tree industry achieved a revenue of a whopping $2.04 billion, showed data from the National Christmas Tree Association; whereas, the amount in case of artificial trees was $1.86 billion.
