2007 PRESS RELEASES

November 20, 2007
CHOOSING A CHRISTMAS TREE BRINGS FAMILIES TOGETHER
Contact: Marion Horsley, 804.225.3820

Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Todd P. Haymore (second from right) brought his family along when he journeyed to Laron Christmas Tree Farm in Powhatan County to kick off the holiday season with the ceremonial first cutting of one of the farm’s beautiful Virginia Grown Christmas trees.  Their choice was a full and well-shaped white pine that will be replaced, as are all harvested Virginia Grown Christmas trees, with two or three seedlings, to ensure that Christmas trees remain one of the state’s most renewable resources.  The Haymores chose a real Virginia Grown tree because freshly cut trees retain their needles longer and are less flammable than out-of-state trees, cut as much as a month or more in advance.  When the holidays end, real Christmas trees enhance the environment because they return to the soil quickly, enriching it as they decay.  In Virginia, Christmas tree farming is a major agricultural industry with thousands of trees harvested and sold annually by hundreds of farms throughout the state. Click here to find a nearby farm.  From left to right, the Commissioner’s mother Faye holding daughter Liza, daughter Cate (standing), wife Margaret holding Lilly, Commissioner Haymore, and father H.F. Haymore, Jr.