Christmas trees remain intact at Pinecrest Tree Farm after Wednesday storm

BLUE SPRINGS - Buying a Christmas tree is a perfectly normal theme for mid-December, but a severe storm with 80 MPH wind gusts, isn’t.

Pinecrest Tree Farms is in Blue Springs, NE. which was one of several towns in the path of Wednesday’s storm. Owner Craig Trump and his family are counting their blessings, after seemingly being spared the worst of the storm.

“We got real lucky in terms of damage compared to a lot of other places,” Trump said.

Trump recently took over the business from his father after 26 years. A severe storm in one of the busiest times of the holiday season was not something he accounted for in his first year as owner. He said the main concern were the seedling trees they grow on-site, which are free-growing. When an 800-lb. tree limb collapsed near their shop, Trump feared encountering countless trees strewn across the field. 

“That was the first thing we were thinking of,” Trump said. “We have 5,000-6,000 seedlings and if you get some wind and hail like that, it can really strip the trees down from their limbs. So, we got really lucky compared to other people.”

Given the time of year, Trump said he and his family were especially lucky because if they were to lose a number of trees, they wouldn’t have the time to replace them, ultimately hurting business.

“It would have been pretty devastating. We’re at the time of the year where you can only can so much done during the year because we’re always up at the office dealing with customers,” Trump said. “If there was any real damage out in the field, it would have been hard to take care of anything, because you can’t plan anymore seedlings at this time of the year.”