By CRIS LEYKAUF

IT'LL BE ANOTHER
year before Christmas tree
farmer Don Coburn can ex-
pect to make much profit
from his 16 hectare farm in
Terrace.

He’s been at it five years,
and estimates he’s spent
about $10,000 a year devel-
oping the farm.

But once the trees start
maturing, he predicts he'll
have no problem finding a
market for them.

many as you could sell,”’
says Coburn.

There’s only one other
serious Christmas tree farm-
er in the entire north, says
Coburn, and he's based ‘in
Prince George. .

On his steeply sloped
acreage near
Coburn has about 27,000

from under a foot to about
seven feet high, and they’re
scatlered across the hillside,
planted about five feet apart.
In some places you. can't
even see the trees through
the fireweed and young
birch,

Its a batile to keep the
weeds and brush under con-
trol, admits Coburn.

Cobum started the farm

% eg pny Paks : £

THAT’S DON Coburn standing beside a Douglas fir tree
he'll sell this Christmas. It’s one of the first of a lot that'll
be ready for sale since he began growing trees for Christ-
mas sales five years ago, Coburn’s plantation is near the
Terrace airport.

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‘*You could never grow as,

the airport

trees planted. They - range.

after he logged land he had
purchased as an investment.
Rather than leave the land
bare, Coburn decided to
plant Christmas trees, to
start saving money for his
four son’s educations.

It's been a long learning
process the last five years,
he says, as he walks over
the farm.

Where the older trees are
planted, near the top of the
block, Coburn picks his way
through slash. woe

“] pile and burn all this
stuff now,’ he says. It's too

‘hard-to work around, he ex-
_ plains, and you can’t plant

the land as densely.

‘He’s: also learned a lot
about pruning “techniques.
Some varietics only have a
two week window for prun-
ing, some are’ best left for
couple years, and... athers
have lo..be ‘trimmed regu-
larly. :

He points out an obvious
gap in a’nearby pine as an
example. ,

And then there’s the fertil-
izer. Too much al the wrong
time will make a young tree
grow too quickly, instead of
filling out and: providing
plenty of branches to dangle
ornaments from.

It’s a lot to keep track of,
considering Coburn has

about a dozen species
planted. They — include
Colorado Blue, Scotch Pine,
White Pine, Grand Fir,
Nobile Fir, Norway Spruce,
Douglas Fir and Lodgepole
Pine.

Coburn planted = about
7,000 trees alone this spring,

and predicts he'll only have .

room for another. 4,000 or so
next spring. .

“He Joses“about five to 10
per cent.in the first planting,
then about one per cent after
that. | . ;

This year he hopes {o sell
a few. Christmas trees, bul

7.

bit you seo a witdtire thls summer calf 12806-663-5556.

Christmas tree farms

most aren'{ tall enough yet.
Next Christmas’ will be ‘his
first big year,. and. then
Coburn hopes to keep going
from there.
Inthe meantime _ he’s
slaried selling a few of his
trees for landscaping uses.
‘*T can: niake more money
selling. landscape trees (hen
Christmas: “trees,”’- says

- Coburn,

Scotch Pine, “Colorado
Blue and Ponderosa © are
popular species he says. But
the market for those trees is
limited, so he’ll- stick to
Christmas trees.

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