There will be plenty of Fraser firs on lots this Christmas, and that includes the ones grown in Ashe County. The trouble Hurricane Helene caused is slower than a shortage. Flooding moved a soil fungus into fields that didn't have it before, and that fungus doesn't leave. The trees people buy this year won't show it. It will show up in which fields are still growing trees years from now.
The national outlook says supply is fine
Every August, the Real Christmas Tree Board surveys wholesale growers. The 2026 survey reached 47 growers who together supply half to two-thirds of the country's real trees. Of those growers, 85% rated this year's supply as strong to very strong. Another 91% said they don't plan to raise wholesale prices, up from 84% a year earlier. Nearly 8 in 10 expect to sell the same number of trees or more than they did in 2025.
North Carolina carries a lot of weight in those numbers. A column in the Ashe Post & Times put the state's harvest at about 3 million trees a year, second only to Oregon. Most of those come from five counties: Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Watauga and Jackson. All five reported significant damage from Helene, and one Avery County farm lost more than 60,000 trees. Still, the column found growers across western North Carolina saying the industry was bouncing back fast.
Measured by what's for sale in December, the recovery is real. Measured by what's in the ground, the picture looks different.
What Extension told the commissioners in September
On Sept. 21, Ashe County Extension Agent Blake Williams gave the Board of Commissioners an update on Phytophthora root rot. The Ashe Post & Times reported on Sept. 29 that Helene's stream and river flooding had spread the fungus across topsoil, and that cases have recently doubled after a serious outbreak last year.
"Once it's in the soil, it will be there forever. It's a very serious pest."
He told commissioners Fraser fir is among the most vulnerable species, saying "it has no immunity anywhere."
NC State Extension describes Phytophthora root rot as a serious disease of Fraser fir and other Christmas trees in North Carolina, caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi and related species. The pathogen does best in compacted, very wet and warm soil, the kind of ground a flood leaves behind. A Fraser fir planted today won't be ready to sell for several years. So if the fungus reaches a field this fall, the trees in that field are being affected long before anyone goes looking for a December tree.
Williams also gave a second number. Christmas tree farms across the region have dropped from about 2,000 to about 300. He said housing and subdivision development are part of the reason, and "it's hard to get that land back" once it leaves production. Extension is now researching ways to grow hardier trees, including grafting.
If disease keeps a field out of firs and land keeps moving out of farming, the number of farms left can shrink even in years when the trees on the lots look great.
One West Jefferson farm, start to finish
Barr Evergreens shows the whole story. A North Carolina Rural Center profile published in August describes it as a second-generation Ashe County farm. Wilson Barr started growing white pines around 1960, and his son Rusty took over in 2008. About 400 of the farm's 500 acres are in Christmas trees, including 115 acres of nursery stock.
Since 2008, the farm has grown its own seedlings in Styrofoam trays instead of buying them from the West Coast. Rusty Barr told the Rural Center that the business's two biggest enemies are phytophthora root rot and deer. During Helene, nearly 300,000 of those tray-grown plants floated off down the creek. The one- and two-year-old trees on higher ground survived, but the farm lost all but about 100,000 of the seedlings that were ready to sell.
The next year, a Barr Evergreens tree was named grand champion in the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association's annual contest. The prize included presenting a Fraser fir of about 14 feet to the Governor's Mansion. Rusty Barr was appointed mayor of West Jefferson last October, and he's served before as a town alderman.
Most of the farm's December trees don't stay in Ashe County. Barr Evergreens has sold trees in Wilmington since 1977 and now owns a two-acre lot there, with dorm-style housing for about a dozen workers. In the Rural Center profile, Barr says the farm doesn't earn much of its income from Ashe County and West Jefferson, "but it's where we live, and it's a community we support." The work cycle starts again here. The farm has 35 employees, some of them on H-2A guest worker visas, and they start heading back to West Jefferson at the end of February to harvest and plant seedlings.
That's the part of the trade most people around here see: trucks in the fall, crews in late winter, and fields that need watching all year.
The official trees went elsewhere this year
North Carolina has supplied the White House tree 16 times, more than any other state. The most recent was 2024, from Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm in Avery County, which itself lost thousands of trees to Helene. The 2026 White House tree comes from David and Leah Chapman of Silent Night Evergreens near Endeavor, Wisconsin, who are this year's National Grand Champions, according to the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association. The 2026 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is coming from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in Idaho. No source we found names the farm supplying the 2026 Governor's Mansion tree.
The calendar at home
Here's how the 2026 season lines up in West Jefferson, based on what's been published so far:
| Date | Event | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14, 2–4 p.m. | West Jefferson Christmas Parade, downtown, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Ashe County | Listed on the Ashe County Chamber calendar |
| Saturdays, Nov. 21–Dec. 5, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. | Holiday farmers markets downtown, with locally grown trees and greenery | Regional events guide; the Ashe County Farmers Market confirms its holiday markets but hasn't posted 2026 dates |
| Fri., Dec. 4, 5–7 p.m. | West Jefferson Christmas Crawl | Regional events guide; the Arts Council page still shows 2025 |
No 2026 tree lighting in West Jefferson or Jefferson had been announced when this was written.
Choose-and-cut farms haven't posted 2026 dates yet. Last year, Long's Tree Farm opened Nov. 22–23 and stayed open on Thanksgiving Day, and Shady Rest Tree Farm opened Saturday, Nov. 22, at 9 a.m. Shady Rest's association profile says it opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving. If that holds, opening day falls on Nov. 21, 2026, the same Saturday as the first holiday market.
The Ashe County Christmas Tree Association keeps a choose-and-cut directory, and the farm profiles show how different the visits can be:
- Lil' Grandfather Choose & Cut lists horse rides, hayrides, a hay-bale movie theater and Santa's workshop.
- Mistletoe Meadows grows Fraser fir, white pine, blue spruce and Leyland cypress.
- Wayland's Nursery adds concolor fir and sells tree stands and garland.
- Ivy Point Farm has an animal display, and Day's Christmas Trees has a gift shop and refreshments.
- Davis Tree Farm, Mistletoe Meadows and Wayland's offer pre-tagging, which lets you pick and mark a tree in the field ahead of cutting day.
Frosty's Choose & Cut says on its website that it closed for the 2025 season and looks forward to seeing customers next year, but no 2026 dates were posted there, so check before you drive out.
Every tree cut at these farms grew for years in the same county soil where Extension says root rot cases have recently doubled.
If your family's land has grown Fraser firs for a generation and you're thinking about what comes next, Jeff Dollar knows Ashe County farm ground from the road frontage to the creek bottoms. He's walked a lot of these parcels with local sellers and can tell you how buyers will look at yours. Get an Instant Home Valuation for a starting point, or read our guide to getting a family farm ready to list in Ashe County.
