{"id":590,"date":"2010-01-21T09:07:12","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T17:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=590"},"modified":"2010-06-10T09:39:24","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T17:39:24","slug":"fraser-firs-deserve-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2010\/01\/fraser-firs-deserve-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraser firs deserve better"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_603\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fri-Orphan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-603\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-603\" title=\"Fraser-Fri-Orphan\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fri-Orphan-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fri-Orphan-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fri-Orphan.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-603\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are many uses for Fraser firs. Photo by Ken Moore.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Ken Moore<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With ally Clay Hudson, I am in dead-heat competition with other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tree ferriers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to deliver the greatest number of orphaned Christmas trees to Diana Steele\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Willow Hill Preschool. For years, Diana has inspired energetic curbside rescuing of discarded trees, mostly native North Carolina Fraser firs, <em>Abies fraseri<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Under Diana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supervision, these trees eventually settle into meandering brush piles in the woodlands containing her magical gardens and preschoolers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 discovery ground.<\/p>\n<p>The former magnificent North Carolina high-altitude evergreen Fraser fir forests, described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christmas Tree Land\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by B.W. Wells in The Natural Gardens of North Carolina, are much diminished now by the exotic balsam wooly adelgid insect pest. I remember being awed back in 1967 by the solid blue-green Fraser fir ridgetops along the Blue Ridge Parkway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highest elevations west of Asheville. Those ridgetops today are steep-sloped deserts of giant dead stems of the former magnificent firs.<\/p>\n<p>Today we see Fraser firs mostly as Christmas tree farm crops in our western counties. Though helping the economy of the region, those farms don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t replace the magnificence of the former Fraser fir forests.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_605\" style=\"width: 231px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Welcome-Bunny.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-605\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-605\" title=\"Fraser-Fir-Welcome-Bunny\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Welcome-Bunny-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Welcome-Bunny-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Welcome-Bunny.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-605\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rescued Fraser firs highlight Willow Hill welcome bunny. Photo by Ken Moore.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, much of the Christmas tree production depends upon heavy pesticide and herbicide use with resulting toxic runoff. A bright side is that some farms are now moving toward pollution-free organic operations.<\/p>\n<p>Just about everyone who enjoyed an indoor tree this past holiday season had a tree cut from one of those tree farms. With the holidays past, those trees are discarded along curbsides into February. Though we are fortunate to have curbside pick-up for landfill composting, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer each tree a more reverent appreciation by extending its beauty and usefulness outdoors on the home turf.<\/p>\n<p>I want to stop and rescue every curbside discard, take it back and stand it upright in my yard, where it will continue to remain green for many more weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Sited near bird feeders, the trees become excellent shelter and approach perches for birds. Simply set upright in the ground, they provide evergreen elements all around the garden and home landscape for several more months.<\/p>\n<p>After the visual landscape effects are past, the branches can be cut and applied as mulch around trees, shrubs and on garden beds. There are so many creative uses on the home grounds for these trees, there is no sense discarding them curbside, making more work for public-works crews.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_604\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Kids.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-604\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-604\" title=\"Fraser-Fir-Kids\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Kids-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Kids-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Fraser-Fir-Kids.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-604\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willow Hill preschoolers celebrate their Fraser fir creation. Photo by Diana Steele.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Once again, Diana Steele gets the annual \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Award for Creative Orphaned Christmas Trees Recycling.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not only do these trees provide instant dramatic landscape effect throughout her garden, but before dozens of them ever make the journey down to become woodland brush-pile wildlife habitats, the kids in her preschool move them around and, like budding architects, make tree fortresses, tree castles and even giant bird nests for their creative energies to explore for weeks on end.<\/p>\n<p>So begin planning now on ways you will keep your Christmas tree on your home turf next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore With ally Clay Hudson, I am in dead-heat competition with other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tree ferriers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to deliver the greatest number of orphaned Christmas trees to Diana Steele\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Willow Hill Preschool. For years, Diana has inspired energetic curbside rescuing of discarded trees, mostly native North Carolina Fraser firs, Abies fraseri. Under Diana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supervision, these trees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20],"tags":[597,595,596,598],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-winter","tag-abies-fraseri","tag-christmas-tree","tag-fraser-fir","tag-organic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}