THUNDER BAY — George’s Market has been providing Christmas trees for their customers each year since 1961.
“It’s a wonderful tradition with us,” said Danny Thompson, George’s Market co-owner with his wife Charmaine. "We know a lot of the families by their first names. I remember selling trees with my dad to his customers when I was younger, and now I’m selling them to their sons and their daughters. It’s a wonderful feeling for us.”
But the traditional selling of festive trees has been axed in half thanks to a small gypsy moth, which is considered an invasive species. Last week, inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) examined six- to eight-foot balsam fir trees on all tree lots in Thunder Bay for evidence of the moth larvae. The taller eight-foot and larger balsam fir trees are not affected by the moth larvae, having been grown in a different area by the supplier. Fraser varieties are also not affected.
“They spotted (evidence of) gypsy moths on some of them and those are the ones that we are not allowed to sell,” Thompson explained. “They will be picked up by our supplier (this) morning. They cleared us to sell our eight to nine-foot balsam firs and all of our Fraser fir varieties.”
Meanwhile, the Kiwanis Club of Westfort’s tree sales on the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds has been completely shut down.
Terry Ferguson, the Kiwanis tree sales chairman, says CFIA inspectors arrived at the lot last Thursday, immediately closed their gates and started inspecting trees.
“I took a tough line with them because I knew that they had already beaten up on George’s Market,” he said. “I told them, ‘I don’t mind if you open half a dozen trees or so and take a look. But I’m not going to allow you to open everything.’ They backed off and only opened 17 trees,” said Ferguson, clarifying they cut the packaging wires on the trees.
“They identified four of the 17 that had the larvae from the gypsy moth. When they were finished with that they just locked us down and told us we couldn’t sell anything. On Friday afternoon, they were back several times.”
He said they allowed him to sell off the Fraser firs that he had in stock, which sold out by five o’clock Saturday afternoon.
“Which is why we are out of business,” Ferguson said.
There are still 161 trees in quarantine on the Kiwanis lot that cannot be sold due to speculation of the moth infestation. The grower will remove them this week. Both George’s Market and the Kiwanis will be refunded for the affected trees.
Ferguson says there have been about 15 possibly-affected trees sold and customers should not have any concerns.
“There is nothing to worry about. They are not going to hurt anyone or your home. Nothing is wrong with them,” he said. “Although what’s going to happen is in the spring, if you don’t dispose of that tree properly, those larvae will grow and they will become gypsy moths.”
After Christmas, people can dispose of the trees by burning them if they have the means to do so, suggested Ferguson.
At George’s Market, customers have been supportive.
“This morning there was a customer outside who was buying a tree and there were only 10 or 12 of them left,” Thompson said. “I said to them, ‘There’s not a lot left for me to sell you here.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I came here because my wife and I want to support you. We see the mess you’re in right now and I don’t care how much the tree costs. I’m buying this tree from you because I want to support you.’”
Thompson says there are always “hiccups” in what they do as a small business, noting the exhaustive closure of River Street, the COVID-19 pandemic and now the impinging gypsy moth situation.
The Chronicle-Journal, Local Journalism Initiative
