Christmas tree farmers in western North Carolina are still recovering from last year's devastating fire. Hurricane Helenbut manufacturers are optimistic about business and the overall strength of their industry in the region.
“There's still a lot of rebuilding to do, but we're in much better shape than we were last year…sales are good,” Kevin Gray, owner of Hickory Creek Farm. Christmas Trees in Greensboro, said earlier this month as shopping season was in full swing.
North Carolina – National second largest Christmas tree producer, harvesting 4 meter trees, mostly Fraserannually, most grown in the western part of the state. As people across the country look forward to twinkling lights and collecting gifts under the branches this holiday season, few who buy a real tree might wonder where it came from.
In October 2024, Helen swept through the region, murder of at least 95 people and causing widespread damage to homes, farms, roads, land and infrastructure. Officials estimate the hurricane, at one stage Category 4, caused about $125 million the only losses were decorative kindergartens and Christmas trees.
A year later, while some farms are still a long way from fully recovering, many producers said their pre-holiday sales were strong.
At Avery Farms, a 200-year-old family business in Avery County, Helen vomited about 80,000 their Christmas trees, destroyed fields, equipment and buildings, and destroyed the home of manager Graham Avery's parents.
That fall, the family sold what they could to customers: a limited number of trees, wreaths, branches and makeshift tabletop trees made from salvaged tree toppers..
This year has been about recovery. Avery's parents' home was restored with the help of “a lot of people donating their time” and they moved back just a month ago. This spring, the family bulldozed damaged fields, fertilized the soil and planted about 20,000 trees. from six to 12 years mature.
“It's going to take a while, but that's the whole game we play making Christmas trees. It's a very long-term investment,” Avery said. “We are built for this and will continue to do so.”
Even with a significant drop in inventory, sales this season have been “very, very good,” and the farm has doubled its wreath production and is shipping them across the country, Avery said.
“With the inventory we have, we haven’t had any problems selling,” Avery said.
Jennifer Greene, Executive Director North Carolina The Christmas Tree Association said the industry remained strong despite the devastation caused to some growers.
The 2025 growing season also brought some relief. “We had a great spring with the April showers,” she said, noting that the trees “actually had a great growing season.”
“We're having a great season, we're glad there wasn't a hurricane and we had good weather for harvest. So everything is looking good,” she said.
Dee Clark, owner of Christmas Corner and C&G Nursery in Avery County, shares similar optimism despite a sharp drop in retail sales last year when the road washed out and remained closed into the summer.
“The early signs look promising,” Clark, 63, said earlier in December. He added that his son developed social marketing techniques to increase sales.
Clark says Helen, a third-generation grower, destroyed much of his farm's infrastructure, damaging roads and culverts, causing landslides that cost about 1,000 trees and stripped the soil of vital nutrients.
Clark, who said the storm “pretty much put us out of business,” is focusing on repairs, replanting and restoring the land. He expects it will take years to replace the lost trees and knows many growers have a similar long road ahead. But he said, “The Christmas tree industry in western North Carolina as a whole is probably in the best shape it's ever been in in terms of tree supply right now.”
Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm owner Sam Cartner said he was lucky no lives or homes were lost in the flooding, but said the landslides had destroyed up to 10,000 trees.
“We will probably never be able to plant these areas again because the topsoil has slipped,” he said. “We will have to find other places to plant if we restore that many trees.”
The Cartners worked quickly and made enough repairs to have a “relatively normal harvest” last fall, despite extensive damage to roads, bridges and culverts on the property, he said.
One of their trees was even chosen last year. be displayed at the White House.
For many in the region, the Cartner tree in the White House became a symbol of perseverance. Jamie Bookwalter, an extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recalled attending the send-off ceremony in Avery County.
“That Christmas tree represented a solution to a lot of people's problems,” she said, “and I think that's what this area of the country is known for: resilience, problem solving and self-reliance.”
Will Colway IV, a Christmas tree extension specialist also in North Carolina, said the Cartners' ability to pick and deliver trees despite everything the region has faced represents “the spirit of the mountains and also of the Christmas tree growers.”
He said they called the tree “Awesome” because “it was truly a huge effort.”
Bookwalter visited some of the hardest-hit farms in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. “Helen has been a terrible thing, but farming in general is becoming increasingly difficult as temperatures become more unpredictable and we get wetter periods – wetter periods get wetter, drier periods get drier,” she said. “We’re all just learning day by day.”
She said researchers are working on creating trees more resilient to a changing climate.
Colway said the public support for the region's producers and farms has been “humbling.”
“Buying a tree supports a North Carolina farmer,” he said. Even if purchased from a big box store, the tree, Bookwalter added, “is actually probably a pretty small farmer.”
