You have to wonder how a TV station, which brags about being part of the community, local and whatever other crap they dish their viewers about being so connected to the state of Oregon, would air a national filler piece touting how better it is to have an artificial tree over a real tree. The story had a "don't buy trees from China" slant, instead supporting the idea of buying a fake tree instead. Of course the story mentions the fire danger with real trees, showing a home burning to the ground. So for all you Christmas tree farmers in Oregon, who provide most of the trees for the state of California, KATU says "kiss our artificial community supporting butt".

Next weekend I expect the filler piece to be on artificial Poinsettias and how the real ones are POISONOUS and should be kept away from children and pets! (By the way, not true)

Mr. Christmas

Did that piece seriously say something about don't buy trees from China? Thats fn hilarious if true because would it not be more likely that if you bought an artificial tree that it would probally be made in a country other than ours and most likely China?

It did everything but say buy the fake tree. All I heard was negative stuff for real trees and positive stuff for plastic trees. Even the local weekend anchors and weather person seemed to give the fake tree idea an approving nod.

anyone know where you can get lead tinsel?(NOT the metalized plastic type??)to hang on christmas holiday trees trees?they used to mke it out of leadzif a piece fell of the tree and landed on the toy train track, it would short out the circuit and cause a bunch of sparks.

"mke it out of leadzif"

Have you been ingesting the stuff?

no,never swollowed any,but Imight have put a piece or two in mouth years ago.it would aloalsoget hot and smooke during the electric short circuit!!!maybe the fumes messed me up??,the lead typelooks better than the plastic stuff!!!

http://www.katu.com/news/local/12271866.html

I always like to plug in the train transformer and do a little arc welding with the wires on different things in the house. There were all these little strange dots and many metal objects in the house. Shhhh....don't tell anyone!

OMG....and the things I used to melt for my "Creepy Crawlers" factory was insane!

How could anyone be opposed to cutting down a young tree that came from a tree farm? These aren't old growth trees, and they were grown for the sake of harvesting!

wasn't the stuff that came with the creepy crawlers setcalled"Super Goop?I had the glow in the dark whitetypeplus the regular black and red also I think.
shane:correction:grown for the sake of charging a stranger$25 or $30 bucks!!!

Ya Right....$25 0r $30 bucks for a "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree!

Add:
Heck man I just melted whatever I had when I ran out of stuff. Army Men, Mom's costume jewelry, pens, crayons, you name it so long as it melts! Rhinestones made really cool bug eyes for the flys and spiders...sort of added a realistic look to them. You knew that you made a good one when you heard a scream from the bathroom from the one you taped under the toilet seat when it got raised up!

why does katu hate america?

62--

"Plastigoop". At least that is what they called it when I had a Creepy Crawler set circa 1993 or so.


Darktemper-I used to make my own "bug crayons" in my CC machine by melting down bits of old crayons in the Creepy Crawler moulds and letting them cool. Took all afternoon to produce a set of 16 colours, but the kids at Hearthwood kept on me about where *they* could get some of their own.

Fun times............

"why does katu hate america?"

Perhaps its because he's Chinese?

http://blog5.fc2.com/c/cb400sf/file/katus.jpg

Did you ever spill your Plasti-Goop on the styrofoam packaging?
It just melted away.

Did anyone else have Incredible Edibles?

tasteded bad!a friend had that stuff.blah!
also had a "girder and panel" set to make buildings, . that became known as the "girdle and pantieset" setafter awhile for some unknown reason.slso had lincoln logs to make log cabins.

Oh man, you ate the wrong stuff. Used to take Hershy bars and melt them into creepy crawlers and then gross out people by eating those worms and bugs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/KENNERS-GIRDER-PANEL-HYDRO-DYNAMIC-BUILDING-SET-11_W0QQitemZ 260191464848QQihZ016QQcategoryZ19015QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Girder-Panel-Action-Bridge-Highway-Set-by-Kenner_W0QQitemZ18 0190192163QQihZ008QQcategoryZ19015QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/MATTEL-INCREDIBLE-EDIBLES-KOOKY-KAKES-MIB-SEALED_W0QQitemZ27 0194315605QQihZ017QQcategoryZ727QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/THINGMAKER-CREEPY-CRAWLERS-CREEPY-PEEPLE-SET-MINT-SEALE_W0QQ itemZ190180451475QQihZ009QQcategoryZ727QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Is that baby M's christmas list?
Don't forget the wood burning/branding set!

These days its all about 'fixing carbon' in the atmosphere. Putting less CO2 in the atmosphere is one thing, like quit burning fossil fuels etc etc. Fixing or converting the CO2 that exists , which is what we have too much of right now, is another issue entirely.

The best way to fix CO2 is to plant more Trees and other vegetation that converts CO2 to its elements Carbon and O2 or Oxygen. Too much CO2 sucks, as it becomes a greenhouse gas in excess. Its not a pollutant by the way.

Now knowing that, and knowing that all biology classes from Middle school on up are teaching the kids and everybody else they can about the 'carbon cycle' which includes the issue of fixing CO2 then you might know why KATU and the media in general are harping about plants and trees being left in the ground and alive to 'fix the carbon' in the atmosphere.

So do the chemistry and then decide which side of the issue you come down on.

Cows are raised for food, Christmas Trees are raised for a purpose as well. Chances are if that land was not used for growing those tree's there would be condos on it. While the trees are growing they are doing what they are supposed to. After the seasonal cutting a new crop is planted and the cycle continues so there is nothing wrong with real tree's. After it's over with the tree's are typically shredded and used to nourish the soil not like a used plastic tree that will sit in a landfill for 1000 years or better. Factor that waste into the equation and real tree's will be in fact the better option.

IMHO, a live tree is a good trade-off. Like the artificial tree, it can be used for many years without additional cost/energy consumption, and does the normal tree/CO2 thing. When it gets too big to haul indoors, plant it in your yard, recycle the pot to the next live tree.

IMHO the scope of the problem is such that we've got far bigger fish to fry than this.

The energy costs, carbon aside, of producing essentially plastic trees is HUGE! Oil is finite, no matter what we think about actually leveraging it, there is only so much to leverage.

Growing trees is not finite, and the tree material can be put to a lot of uses.

Not sure the carbon cycle is the key point of discussion.

Having said that, I've had a fake tree for a coupla years. It's not bad, lot less work, consistent, etc... It's not all that good either! Doesn't have that smell, even if one buys the smell, it's just not organic. Major downer.

Fire safety is not a major concern for me. It's plenty easy to use the little, low temp lights, keep it watered and just check the thing. Anybody burning from a tree really deserves it. It's not like the old days where the bulbs ran off of 110 direct, and could reach the flash point of the dry needles.

Kennewickman,

Going to plastic Christmas trees will not save the planet. Why not get on the case of the timber industry, which does more damage to the environment (fewer trees for air, fish and other wildlife habitat, unstable hillsides which result in landslides) then the Christmas Tree industry does in a lifetime. Do the math instead of the chemistry.

Timber is a renewable resource and so long as it is re-planted after harvesting then harvesting it is fine. Especially when that timber is grown on private land as a product to be harvested and so long as reforestation occurs there is nothing wrong with the timber industry providing jobs for many of us in the PNW.

Timber take 30 years to grow back. Christmas trees a heck of alot less. The point is, cutting Christmas trees compared to old growth is not a comparison if you are looking at saving the environment by not using a real Christmas tree.

Yep. You want to save the Environment then the PNW logging is not the problem. The worlds rain forests are disappearing at an alarming rate and are not being replenished. While it does take a number of years for that harvested forest to grow back the point is that it is re-forested as it is harvested, same as christmas trees are. Also, a young stand of tree's are far less of a fire hazard than old growth stands. When an area is logged and replanted, the old snags removed and the plot cleared, the risk of wild fires is greatly reduced. I ain't saying cut down all of the old growth but selective logging can serve a great service by helping to reduce the risk of wild fires by allowing the harvesting of it and supplying a needed product before it is just unuseable and a fire hazard. Thinning of old growth is OK in my book but not complete clear cutting. Another vauleable resource the logging community provides is all of the roads that are made in order to access remote areas. If not for those roads fire services would have a huge problem getting to the fires to battle them.

I guess with some discussions, the main point of that discussion can become blurred. My original point, before the "save the planet" discussion came into play, was real Christmas trees vs. plastic trees. KATU aired a national feature piece which was slanted favoring plastic trees. I thought it was funny how a TV station based in Oregon where there is a Christmas tree industry would mindlessly air the story.

Sorry, yes that is strange indeed. I agree with you that a "Live" tree is the best option, somewhat cumbersome and heavy, but when the season is over and you have a place to plant it, that is great.

In case you did not guess, I Support the Private Timber Industry. Not so much the big guns like Weyerhauser or GP as the smaller local mills and logging companies that help keep the PNW in jobs.

Maybe KATU really does hate America? I think someone there needs to be waterboarded to get down to the bottom of this.

My wife, who is from Arizona, suggests every year that we get a fake tree. My standard response every year back to her is "I'm an Oregonian, and I'll be damned if we have a fake Christmas tree in our house."

Maybe KATU would have better served our community by airing the stories of how hard the tree growers work this time of year along with how far Oregon trees span across the globe.

Calyforniaaa seems to be the biggset consumer of them. I used to love getting a permit every year when the kids were younger and going up in the snow to Canyon Creek and trying to find that perfect tree. It may not have been the most manacured tree but the search for it was what was fun so the tree could have looked liked Charlie Brown's tree and it did not matter. It was the journey to get it that made it special. It's a shame that as the kid's got older and our family busier that some traditions seem to have been displaced. Maybe i'll just pack up the family and head up there this weekend just for old times sake even if we don't get a tree!

But remember you got to go up there in a brown 1988 Ford Taurus Station Wagon. 2 kids in the back, wife ridin' shotgun and underneath a Log Truck on some road that looks like the Hood River to Mt Hood Loop Hiway 35.

Here, we just don't bother at all. Problem solved.
Seriously.
Saves the obscene amount of money it takes to purchase a dead tree, finding room in the living room by shoving everything else to the other side of the room, cramming everything else up against the wall and everything else.
Then there's the amount of time it takes to put decorations on the thing.
Then in a few days you're just taking the thing down again, cleaning up the mess, paying more money to get rid of the remains (and/or finding a ditch to dump it in), and by the time whoever has that wonderful task gets home, someone decides to put a bunch of stuff in the "extra space" the tree was taking up (see above about what happens with the stuff that was there before).

I never will forget the time I went late archery hunting in early December. Snow everywhere, Deer everywhere. We were only ten minutes in the hunting unit and came across a small herd of Deer. I was not a very good shot as it took 6 arrows to finally hit one. When I did finally hit the biggest Deer she was standing just off of the road in front of a steep hillside. The arrow went clean through and must have punctured both lungs and sprayed the entire hillside Red. After leaving a steaming gut pile on the side of the road we left. Not sixty seconds down the road we passed that "brown 1988 Ford Taurus Station Wagon. 2 kids in the back, wife ridin' shotgun" that were obviously on a christmas tree hunt. Oh the horrors awaiting them just around the next corner! You don't still have nightmares from that do you? Sorry K-Man.

has KEX banned elvis and all otherchristmas music again? 620 also??

wS IT ACTUALLY iRVING BERLIN WHO ISSUED THE LETTER,DID HE ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE ELVIS VERSION?OR MAYBE A MANAGER/PRODUCER/SALES/MARKETING PERSONCALLED FOR THE BAN AS PART OF A PUBLICITY STUNT???THERE IS ALSO SOME VERSION OF WHITE CHRISTMAS SUNG BY SOME DOO-WOP GROUP.IS THAT ONE OK???

The Chemistry *is* what matters ultimately in any discussion of why any intelligent entity living on this planet would express a desire to save a tree in the first place. And the carbon cycle * does * matter. Ask ANY expert on Bio Science regardless of their opinion on global warming or political affiliations.

If you want a real Christmas tree in your living room, then go buy one or cut one down yourself and decorate it and have a wonderful holiday, as far as I am concerned. Or do it with an aluminum tinsel tree, whatever turns your crank. Just use your head and think about it before you do whatever you do.

We have been doing *just* the math for too many years when we consider all the filter feeding bastards in the food chain of greed, making money on our established path of burning liquid dinosaur juice. This unfortunate habit will end someday, but it wont die easily given corporate greed, even if technology finally does catch up with the reality of giving us the energy we need to operate our vehicles and heat and cool our buildings and do all the other comfortable Hi techie tricks and whisltes we all want in our lives, me included.