By Colleen O’Dea for NJ Spotlight

‘Tis the season that New Jersey’s Christmas tree farmers love, and while their ranks may have declined, their sales this year are up.

New Jersey had 690 farms that sold Christmas trees in 2012, according to the most recent released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There were more than 4,600 acres of pine, fir, spruce and cedar, with 68,471 trees cut.

Those numbers have dropped compared to the previous decade. There were 27 percent fewer acres in production in 2012 than in 2007 and 40 percent fewer acres than in 2002. The number of trees harvested two years ago was about half as many as in 2002, when more than 132,000 trees were cut, and the total was 13 percent less than in 2007. The number of tree farms was 25 percent lower in 2012 compared to 2002 and 22 percent lower than in 2007.

Lynne Richmond, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture, noted that the number of farms of all types – not just Christmas tree farms — has been declining both in New Jersey and nationally. But the growers who remain are doing well.

“Christmas trees can be very profitable,” she said.

The Ag census data shows the amount of sales of Christmas trees and other short-term woody crops has been declining, as well: the $1.8 million in sales in 2012 was 30 percent less than the $2.6 million in sales in 2007 and less than half the $3.9 million in sales a decade earlier.

Read the rest of the article here.

Find out where you can cut down your own Christmas tree in New Jersey here.