Author: Allan Sandoval
If you have ever visited the North Carolina mountains, you’ve probably noticed the perfectly aligned rows of Christmas trees visible from the highways. What you may not know is all those trees help make North Carolina one of the largest producers of Christmas trees in the United States.
According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture, North Carolina ranked second only to Oregon in terms of Christmas tree production in 2012. In that year, North Carolina produced $75 million worth of Christmas trees, or 20.3% of the national total.
This interactive map from the Washington Post breaks tree production down even further and declares North Carolina’s Ashe County as the top producer for the nation. In Ashe County alone, nearly 2 million Christmas trees were harvested. Imagine all the ornaments!