Climbing High Farms offering alternative for Christmas tree disposal

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With the holiday season coming to an end and Christmas trees needing to be cleared out, Climbing High Farms is offering a solution for a quick and responsible disposal. 

While composting trees is one option, another is to offer the tree up to become food for local goats. Robert Hatton-Fearnley, co-owner of Climbing High Farms, explained the pine makes for an excellent treat for the animals. 

“There are a lot of people who say pine is a natural de-wormer … they do really like eating them. Goats are foragers, so they like to have multiple different feeds,” he said. “We primarily feed them grass and hay with some alfalfa and timothy and some orchard grasses … they will eat multiple different forages to stay healthy and that is also why theirs is one of the healthiest meats in the world.”

Hatton-Fearnley said the farm keeps more than 20 goats on the property which will be excited to see people coming by to drop off trees.

He added something to be aware of, however, is whether a tree has been sprayed with fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, which may cause health problems for the animals if consumed.

“Generally, when you buy a tree, there is a tag on it, or you can call the place you got it from. Most of the big stores like Home Depot, (etc.), the places they buy their trees from spray their trees. These are not things that we want to feed our animals,” he said. “If you are getting your trees from Namaka Tree Farm outside of town, there are a bunch of natural tree farms you can get a tree from, or from out in the foothills if you have a tree permit and you pick one from out there, those are all really good trees to be feeding our animals.”

Climbing High Farms accepts trees on an annual basis, so long as those wishing to get rid of them bring them to the farm where they can be inspected prior to either composting, being used as firewood, or for consumption by the goats.

Hatton-Fearnley added Climbing High Farms will soon be using a portion of the property to host a tree farm of their own in order to supply unsprayed trees in future years.

“The biggest thing (is) to encourage people to go buy trees locally, whether they go to the foothills and take one naturally out of the forest or whether they go to a place like Namaka Tree Farm,” he said. “If we can change from buying from big box stores to buying from places like that where they are selling you a good tree, that will do us better and then also do other farmers in the local area better as well.”