Nurseries throughout Sonoma County are participating in the “Gifting a Tree” program, which, after Christmas, takes back living Christmas trees and gives them to people who are rebuilding their lives — and their landscaping — in the fire zones of Sonoma and Lake County.
The program, which began in the aftermath of the Valley Fire in Lake County in 2015, is now in its fourth year. Last year, after Sonoma County’s October firestorm, the Blair family, which runs the program, expanded it to include the newly scorched areas of Sonoma County.
“The fires just kept on coming, so we just keep on going,” said Kathy Blair, who dreamt up the program after several friends lost homes in the fire that devoured half of the small Lake County town of Cobb, where she lives.
Here’s how it works: instead of buying a cut Christmas tree, you buy a living tree from a participating nursery to decorate your house for Christmas. When Christmas is over, you take it back to one of the nurseries, which then gives it to Gifting a Tree.
In January, Blair and family come and pick up the trees from the nurseries and take them to a central location near the burn area, where they create a free pop-up nursery for families who’ve lost their homes in the fires and are starting to rebuild.
Cody Rich of Harmony Farm Supply and Nursery in Graton says that Harmony has been involved with the program from the very beginning. “We’re a drop off spot for anybody that wants to donate a tree — and of course we also sell live Christmas trees too. We took over 100 trees last year to be planted in the fire zone,” Rich said. (Unlike most of the nurseries, Harmony also delivers the trees to the donation area, which Blair deeply appreciates. “It’s a huge help,” she says.)
Deanna Tubbs, one of the owners of Prickett’s Nursery in Healdsburg says her customers are enthusiastic about the program. “We’ve been advertising about the program in our weekly print ads and our weekly emails, and people seem excited to donate. They buy a live tree, take it home and decorate it and then they bring it back.”
Tubbs said Prickett’s gave about 100 trees to Gifting A Tree last year.
Prickett’s provides a tree care pamphlet with their living Christmas trees to help make sure they’re still in good shape by the time they’re returned.
“You shouldn’t really keep a living tree inside the house for longer than a week or a week and a half,” Tubbs said, noting that the warm dry air inside most homes stresses the trees. “You want to keep them away from heating vents and fireplaces. We suggest that you water them by putting ice cubes around the root ball. It soaks in slowly, and there’s less of a chance of spilling water.”
Cloverdale Nursery has participated in the program since the nursery opened three years ago, donating about 30 trees last year, not all of them Christmas trees. All of the participating nurseries have “Gifting a Tree” donation boxes where, if customers don’t want to buy a living tree, they can donate money to Gifting a Tree instead. Blair then turns around and uses the money that the nurseries have collected to buy a variety of different kinds of trees.
“Not everybody has the space or wants a Christmas tree in their yard,” said Ashley Porter of Cloverdale Nursery. “I recommend the Chinese pistache. It’s a nice shade tree that does well in this climate and provides a lot of beautiful color in the fall. We donated about 30 trees last year and they were a combination of Christmas trees and other kinds of trees.”
Gifting a Tree needs volunteers
Blair and her husband, who both work fulltime, run Gifting a Tree in their spare time. This year they need two types of volunteers: they need people with trucks to help pick up the trees from the nurseries and deliver them to the donation area. And, most critically, they need a new donation area near the burn area in Santa Rosa or Larkfield Wikiup for the pop-up nursery. (The site they used last year couldn’t host again this year.) The donation area needs to have room for several hundred trees, and it needs to be relatively accessible to car and truck traffic.
If you can help, contact Kathy Blair by calling or texting 707-972-2084. You can also reach them via their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ Lakecountygiftingatreeproject.
