Live Christmas trees for sale limited in Greene County
County residents looking to locally purchase a live Christmas tree for the holidays have limited options, as the Waynesburg Lions Club recently announced that, for the first time in more than 40 years, they will not be selling trees this year.
Thomas Dorazio, who has run the club’s Christmas tree fundraiser for the past 26 years, said Musser Forests in Indiana, Pa., did not have trees for the organization this year.
“We’ve been getting trees off of him for at least 30 years,” Dorazio said, adding that he was warned of a potential shortage last year. “I just took that for granted. I went to order them for this year. They said we don’t have any trees for you this year.”
Dorazio said he has been unsuccessful in getting trees elsewhere.
The fundraiser was a big undertaking, as Lions Club members would have had to cut and haul the trees themselves.
“It was too much for the club. We’re going to take a year off,” Dorazio said. “I feel bad for the community. It’s like a tradition we have each year.”
Meanwhile, Leah Bell runs Ralph K. Bell Christmas Tree Farm in Morgan Township with her husband, Dave Bell, and it is the last remaining Christmas tree farm in the county.
The farm is a smaller operation than when Dave Bell’s grandfather, for whom the farm is named, owned it. Leah Bell said they typically do not sell many trees, but that changed last year.
“We sold three times as many as we sold in previous years. That, of course, put a huge hurting on what we have in stock,” Bell said. “You can’t grow a Christmas tree any faster than what God allows. We’ve got what we got.”
Bell attributes the increased demand to families looking for outdoor activities to do together during the pandemic.
With the Waynesburg Lions Club not selling trees this year, Bell worries the trend will put an even bigger strain on their farm.
“We allow people to come and tag Christmas trees early. We even have three or four times the number of people who have already come and tag trees,” Bell said.
The Bell family asked the Lions Club to post on their Facebook page that they may not be able to meet the increased demand and suggested they look for for other vendors in the region.
Bell notes that for many locals, getting a tree at their farm has been a family tradition, and that people come back with their grandchildren and great- grandchildren.
“We have families that have been coming literally for 50 years,” Bell said. “We’re concerned that some of our regulars, if they don’t come early, they’ll get squeezed out by people desperately looking for trees.”