Growing Christmas trees is difficult but 'beautiful' labor by these Oregon workers

Last August, Joel Banderas Almonte posted to TikTok a video he’d had on his phone for a while, joking alongside his co-worker as they worked on a row of Christmas trees at a Mid-Valley farm.

Nearly 380,000 followers and several viral videos later, Banderas Almonte’s videos showcase the labor of Oregon’s Christmas tree workers, who power the state to being the nation’s top producer of Christmas trees and have been especially busy in the past month harvesting trees that will end up in every corner of the U.S. and beyond.

“I think people are interested in the work of growing Christmas trees,” Balderas Almonte said in Spanish. “The quality of our work is just always improving. One sees the reaction of the Christmas tree buyers and how beautiful the trees are, and one is motivated to do better and better.”

For subscribers: Oregon's drought killed many young Christmas trees, spared mature trees to be sold this year

'Really beautiful work'

Last year, Oregon Christmas tree sales totaled $107 million, with workers harvesting 3.44 million trees, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Clackamas County leads Oregon in Christmas tree acreage with 9,472 acres, and Marion County is next at 7,198 acres. Lane County had 802 acres in 2020.

Clackamas County ranks first in the nation for Christmas tree production by acreage, with Marion County in fifth place and Polk County in sixth place, according to the 2017 National Census of Agriculture by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Depending on the variety, it can take five to 10 years to grow and harvest a Christmas tree. Some Mid-Valley tree farms began their harvest in mid-October, with the pace picking up significantly in November.

Alejandro Cortes Hernandez arrived at Salem's A&E Farms in September from the state of Michoacán in Mexico through the H-2A temporary guest worker program. It requires employers to certify they could not find domestic workers to fill job openings and requires growers to provide housing, meals and transportation to their employees.

Luis Cória, owner of A&E Farms and Cória Estates vineyard and winery, bought the tree farm 27 years ago and has turned to the H-2A program the past four or five years, he said. Some years, it’s been more difficult than others to find workers, he said, as people are reluctant to do the work of growing Christmas trees.

The farm harvests about 20,000 trees per year, he said.

It’s especially difficult planting the trees and tending to them in their early years when people have to stoop and be “like a staple” all day, said Cória, who also lost about 20,000 young trees during this summer’s heatwave.

Until the trunk of the trees is big enough, the trees require a lot of care to ensure they grow correctly.

Federal response: Sen. Ron Wyden addresses need to protect Oregon's Christmas tree industry

“Last year, someone lasted two-and-a-half hours and said, ‘It’s a job for donkeys,’” Cória said.

Cortes Hernandez is learning a lot in his first year in the Christmas tree industry. He said the work is more fast-paced but less tiring than his previous job in reforestation in Salem, he said. It’s challenging to find work in Mexico, where he worked as a salesman and construction worker, and crime can be a problem, Cortes Hernandez said.

He’d like to work at A&E Farms again next year if possible, despite the bitter cold in the morning and occasionally working in the rain. But for now, he plans to take a few vacation days with his wife and two young children when he returns to Mexico in mid-December, he said.

“It’s really beautiful work,” Cortes Hernandez said in Spanish, gesturing east toward Mt. Jefferson on a windy fall day.

Getting that cone shape

Christmas trees require shearing to achieve their cone look, and that work is a lot of what Banderas Almonte highlights in his TikTok videos, which he sets to Christmas music and audios describing the struggles and joys of immigration.

In his videos, he shows how the workers use machete-like knives to trim the branches and lop off excessively long pieces on a regular basis.

Banderas Almonte, who is also from Michoacán and is in his tenth year at Noble Mountain Tree Farm near Salem, said he enjoys every part of his work. Noble Mountain Tree Farm is the largest contiguous tree farm in the world and harvests over half a million trees per year, many of which end up at Home Depot and Walmart, general manager Bob Schaefer said.

This summer’s heatwave put the Pacific Northwest Christmas tree industry in uncharted territory, as growers will have to wait and see how long it will take the trees that were impacted but not killed, such as those sunburned on one side, to recover, Schaefer said.

Noble Mountain lost some seedlings, which can be replanted, while some older trees were generally undamaged, he said.

Banderas Almonte carefully described the differences and his favorite components of the four main varieties of Christmas trees Noble Mountain grows — Noble, Douglas, Grand and Nordmann.

FAQ: From flocked trees to gift wrap, here's how to keep your holiday trimmings out of the trash

“I love everything about my job,” Banderas Almonte, 31, said. “I enjoy pruning them, I enjoy the harvest, and I enjoy breathing in clean air among the Christmas trees.”

His shyness kept him from posting on TikTok after downloading the app, he said, but eventually his videos capturing his workday received millions of views and he figured out many people are curious about the work of harvesting Christmas trees.

Commenters often ask about the shaping of the trees. Some are surprised Christmas trees are a specifically cultivated agricultural product. And many thank workers for providing one of their favorite parts of the season.

Banderas Almonte, who lives in Salem, said he doesn’t view the work as difficult since he has been working since he was a teenager. But he is impressed when the product he’s tended to in the Mid-Valley ends up as far away as Dubai and Singapore.

Omar Uscanga, from Veracruz, Mexico, lives in Salem and has also worked at Noble Mountain for 10 years. His job there is seasonal and he also works in the grape harvest, nursery industry and as a wildland firefighter.

Tree quality varies based on the fullness and evenness of the branches as well as its color, he said. He looks forward each year to choosing the most beautiful tree and cutting it exactly how he wants.

Workers are paid by the piece, and a person who works nimbly can make upwards of $200-$250 per day, he said, though it depends on the person. Working hard also means dealing with blisters on your hands and working when it’s foggy and cold in the morning, and even working through occasional snow, which freezes the trees, Uscanga, 38, said.

“Oregon is really beautiful, but the weather can be (a lot),” Uscanga said. “Dealing with the weather is difficult but we try … to do the job the way they ask us to. We’re used to the rain. It’s not like it rains and we get scared."

The pandemic has made workers more diligent about staying home when they’re sick, he said, but their work has also remained much the same because people depend on agricultural workers.

“If we’re not in the fields, there’s nothing. Nothing will get done,” Uscanga said.

When it comes to trees, his work is also about capturing the most important moments of the Christmas season.

“One feels satisfied they’re going to bring joy to a family. That’s what it’s about — bringing joy through having a tree and putting presents under it and remembering people who are no longer with us. There’s a lot of satisfaction,” Uscanga said.

Dora Totoian covers agricultural workers through Report for America, a program that aims to support local journalism and democracy by reporting on under-covered issues and communities. You can reach her at dtotoian@statesmanjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Meet the Oregon workers who grew your Christmas tree