With Live Christmas Trees, There’s More Than One Way to Save : Holiday: The San Gabriel Valley offers plenty of outlets for environmentally conscious consumers.

This Christmas season, some San Gabriel Valley residents are getting back to roots.

A number of environmentalists and merchants say consumers are showing increasing interest in live Christmas trees, which are replanted after the holiday instead of being thrown away as cut trees are.

“Each person who buys a living tree is saving a tree from being cut down,” said Elizabeth Pomeroy, chairwoman of the Pasadena Group of the Sierra Club.

Such a purchase may also save a little money in the long run: Giving a live tree after the holiday to a park, school or other nonprofit group such as Future Farmers of America is tax deductible, said Edmund Fry of Rose Tree Cottage in Pasadena, who has been selling live Christmas trees for 10 years.

This year, Fry said, the demand is greater than ever. “People are more concerned these days about destroying living things,” he explained.

Helen Galvin of Altadena was planning to buy an artificial tree before her college-age children demanded that she buy a real tree instead.

“My kids got upset,” Galvin, 42, said as she picked over the live trees at Rose Tree Cottage, an English gift and tea shop. “They wanted the real thing, but they also didn’t want me to buy a cut tree.”

Tree suppliers said live trees can also be found at a number of San Gabriel Valley nurseries and garden centers--among them Armstrong Garden Center stores and Tatum’s in Pasadena--and at discount stores, including Price Club and Home Depot.

They’re also for sale at several tree farms in the San Gabriel Valley, including Green & Fresh Christmas Tree Farm, at 3190 E. Del Mar Blvd. in Pasadena; Lyon Christmas Tree Farms, which has three locations in Rosemead, the biggest at 8500 Valley Blvd.; Grand Avenue Tree Farm, at 1135 S. Grand Ave. in Glendora, and Grandpa’s Christmas Tree Farm at 16531 East Colima Road in Hacienda Heights.

Prices vary widely, depending on size. At Rose Cottage, trees range from $12.50 to $45. At nurseries, they go from $15 to $275.

Interest in live trees has grown because of environmental programs such as Global ReLeaf, the American Forestry Assn.’s campaign to encourage the planting of 100 million trees in U.S. cities by 1992.

“Last year people were talking about buying live trees and planting them to help reduce smog,” said Frank Burkard of Burkard’s Nursery in Pasadena, which also carries live Christmas trees. “There’s no question that people are becoming more environmentally aware.”

However, environmentalists and growers tend to agree that cutting holiday trees is not really much of an environmental menace. That’s because forests are rarely cleared these days for Christmas trees; rather, the trees are cultivated for between five and 15 years in urban locations that otherwise would be devoid of greenery altogether.

“If people stopped buying cut Christmas trees, there would be a million acres of trees that would just disappear,” said Sharon Burke, executive director of California Christmas Tree Growers, a trade group.

The biggest environmental problem with cut trees, Burke continued, is disposal after the Christmas season ends. Trees often end up in already bulging landfills.

TreePeople, an environmental organization based in Beverly Hills, does not advocate buying cut trees over live trees.

“Our main message is that people should be responsible no matter which way they go,” said spokeswoman Rena Rosenthal. “If people buy a cut tree, then they should take it somewhere where it can be mulched rather than putting it on the curb and sending it to the landfill. If it’s a live tree, they should make sure they have a place to plant it and that they know how to take care of it.”

Rosenthal also recommended asking the grower or nursery owner about which live Christmas trees are drought resistant and smog tolerant, which trees will grow best in a specific area and how long a tree can be kept potted inside the house.

“If people want to help the environment, then they have to be willing to do some work,” Rosenthal said. “They have to be committed.”