Christmas Tree Farms Get the Ax : Traditions: Utility won’t renew leases, saying it needs more income.
Piggybacking his granddaughter with a bow saw in hand, Christmas tree connoisseur Kevin Nagle roams the rows of the Lyon’s Christmas Tree Farm in Rosemead as part of an annual attempt to experience life as a lumberjack.
Candidates for the Nagle family Christmas tree must be full-figured, come close, but not too close, to the ceiling of their Temple City home and have at least three good sides because it will stand in a very visible corner of the living room.
Cutting down a Christmas tree is as much a part of the Nagle family Christmas tradition as Santa Claus. But by the time people are celebrating Jesus’ 2,000th birthday, finding a cut-your-own tree farm in Los Angeles County will be almost as tough as finding a California gnatcatcher.
The Christmas tree farms are an endangered species in Southern California now that owners of nearly half the tree farms in Los Angeles and Orange counties were informed by landlord Southern California Edison this year that their property licenses will not be renewed. For many farmers this is the last year they will do business; others have been warned by Edison not to plant more trees this year, as they will lose their farms when the leases expire over the next few years.
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Although not every such farm is on Edison property, the majority of these family-owned businesses have been longtime tenants of the utility company. Many say the land, which has electrical towers, is perfectly suited for agriculture and is the only affordable farmland in Los Angeles. Of the 16 Christmas tree farms in Los Angeles County and the 20 in Orange County, about half will lose their land, along with many of Edison’s 5,000 agricultural and horticultural tenants in Southern California.
Edison officials say they are making changes on many of their property licenses as they look for ways to maximize profit so they can lower electric rates. Revenue earned from the licenses goes toward offsetting electricity rates, which are among the highest in the nation, Edison officials said.
Furthermore, the company says there is pressure to be more competitive since the California Public Utilities Commission’s recent decision to deregulate the state power industry.
“Property values have changed and that has nothing to do with Edison. Decisions are being made that reflect those changes,” Edison spokesman Kevin Kelley said. “We realize that doesn’t make the transition any easier, but Edison has an obligation to get the best return for ratepayers.”
Not all of Edison’s tenants are immediately threatened. The farms hardest hit by the power company’s move are those near shopping centers and on major thoroughfares, where more profitable uses can be found for the land.
The South Bay Christmas Tree Farm on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance, the last do-it-yourself lot in the South Bay, closed Saturday after 30 years in business. Cuehlo’s Top Quality in Lakewood, a 20-year-old farm, is expected to shut down by the end of the year, along with Santa’s Forest in Paramount.
“These trees are living things and a whole bunch of them are going to go to waste,” Jerry Eckberg, owner of the South Bay Christmas Tree Farm, said sadly. “I tried to fight this thing but I got too tired; I decided it was time to close.”
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Edison has plans to pave many of the transmission line corridors to make room for parking lots and RV storage businesses. The South Bay Christmas Tree Farm and the street front portion of Lyon’s 10-acre Rosemead farm, which is between two strip malls, will become parking lots.
“It’s like taking away the door to a department store,” said Lyon’s farm manager Albert Marquez. “People won’t see the farm because the front entrance will be gone.”
Espe and Bud Lyon own 10 farms throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties and have been in the business since 1968. Espe Lyon said Edison took back the front portion of the City of Commerce farm last year and also shut down their 10-acre farm on Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance.
Sepehr Raafat lost two of his four Santa’s Forest Christmas Tree Farms last year and will see the Paramount farm close this year. Similarly, Charles Peltzer, owner of Peltzer Pines in Orange County, said three of his eight farms will close over the next three years.
It takes almost five years for a Monterey pine to reach full size and many farmers are angry about losing several years worth of harvest. Edison officials say that the license issued to farmers has a 30-day clause that allows the utility giant to cancel it, but in most cases farmers have been given two to three years’ notice.
Although some farmers have received compensation for the move, they say it isn’t enough money for the nest egg that their farm had become. Eckberg, owner of the South Bay Christmas Tree Farm, was paid $500 for the seedlings he had already purchased for the 1998 harvest and Edison offered to clear his three-acre farm because he agreed to close two years before his lease was up. Eckberg, 62, planned to retire when the lease ended and has not come up with a plan on how to survive until he is eligible to collect Social Security.
When the Christmas season is over, the California Christmas Tree Growers Assn., which represents 500 farmers statewide, hopes to meet with Edison officials to prevent more farm closures. The nonprofit organization in Merced is concerned that without Edison land, the farms may one day become obsolete.
“Every one of these farms that is closing has a personal tragedy built into it,” Peltzer said. “Most of the farmers are in their 60s and plan to use the farms as their retirement. My trees are both my livelihood and my retirement.”
