ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Saving Christmas in North Carolina, One Tree at a Time, After Hurricane Helene
The storm upended the Christmas tree industry in the state’s western region. Now, farmers and residents are eager for the comfort of the season’s rituals.
WHY WE’RE HERE
We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In storm-wrecked western North Carolina, Christmas tree farmers are determined to keep holiday traditions going and protect their livelihoods.
By Emily Cochrane
Photographs by Mike Belleme
Emily Cochrane reported from western North Carolina, and grew up with at least one real Christmas tree in the house every year.
Dec. 15, 2024
Curve around the mountain on a cool, wet morning, and you’ll see them rising through the fog: row after row of silver-green trees, their layers of soft needles and branches primed to hold a string of lights, a glittering bauble or a child’s handmade ornament.
The setting is Newland, a town about 90 minutes north of Asheville in western North Carolina. Field upon field in the region serves as an incubator for Fraser firs, among the most beloved American Christmas trees. But when the remnants of Hurricane Helene sent raging floodwaters through the mountains in late September, it upended the region’s Christmas tree industry months before the holidays.
The rain caused mudslides through the mountains, uprooting thousands of trees that had been at the end of a decade’s worth of growth and seedlings that had just started to take root. Homes, barns and facilities that supported the tree businesses were damaged or destroyed.
And many of the winding roads that made it possible to bring trees down from the mountains to suppliers became impassable in snarls of gravel and debris.
“The first time I drove over there and I saw it, I just sat there and cried,” said Rhonda Heath, recounting the storm-wrecked lot outside Asheville where she had sold Christmas trees for eight years. The damage forced her to sell trees at a new location this year.
In recent weeks, farmers have been salvaging their crops, navigating recently rebuilt roads and urging loyal customers, some of whom sell the trees on lots around the state and country, to follow through with their orders. And in the aftermath of a storm that killed about 100 people in the state and wrecked hundreds of homes and businesses, residents are particularly eager for the comfort of the season’s rituals.
