How it all started

30 years ago today - Groundhog Day, 1990. I remember walking the land that my wife and I had recently purchased. It was an abandoned 14 acre corn field with 4 acres of old growth forest attached to the east end in Mahoning County, Ohio. The land was surrounded by other farmland, woodland, and swamp, all interspersed with rural and suburban homes.

Before I chose the spot to start the foundation for our new home, I was already planning on what to plant on that forlorn looking abandoned field: Trees! Christmas Trees.

And so the Paradise Hill Christmas Tree Farm was born.  (“Paradise” is the name of the crossroad on the other side of the woods.)  

Thousands of trees were planted over the next 25 years. Mostly Blue Spruce trees, but many other species were thrown in the mix, too. The original plan was to allow the trees that were not chosen as someone’s Christmas tree to grow to maturity and eventually become woodland. 

As Burrell Ives described the Island of Misfit Toys in the cartoon Rudolph, so too became the Christmas tree farm of picked-over trees that overgrew wild and became a haven for wildlife... The island of misfit trees. 

The property now is dedicated as a nature preserve and tree plantings are ongoing. However, instead of evergreens, the new plantings are mostly oaks, walnuts, chestnuts, and fruit trees.  

Looking forward, I plan to write various articles on how anybody, who has any type or size of property can help wildlife survive, from the microscopic nematodes and insects in the soil to pollinators and progressively larger forms of life that all belong together.