California's Severe Drought Impacting Quality of Christmas Trees

The day after Thanksgiving generally means the hunt is on for the best Christmas tree. But California's severe drought has some tree farms warning customers that they may not see the quality they have in past years.

The Meyer family was out shopping for a Christmas tree on Friday in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They saw first hand how the drought has impacted the quality of the trees.

"A lot of them are find, but a lot of dry spots," Joel Meyer said. "Just gotta pick and choose and clear them out and go for it."

Tree farms across the state are warning customers that trees over 5 feet are showing stress because they did not get much water or growth over the last year. In addition, the trees might not be as full.

The Kloppel family saw the effects of the drought at a local tree farms near Moss Landing.

"We have plenty of tree farms, but the drought really hit all the farms and our trees are dry," Mari Kloppel said. "So we decided to come to the mountains where the trees are a little fresher."

The owners of Frosty's Tree Farm above Los Gatos said the drought did have an effect this year, but still believes most of its trees are fine and healthy. Owner Johnny Cerrito recommends shoppers put the tree in water right away.

"Just make sure to keep it watered in the first week or two," Cerrito said. "That'll absorb most of the water. So they really do need to maintain the water."

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