Virginia
How Virginia’s Dept. of Forestry and Christmas tree growers spruced up the holidays – WTOP News
Approximately 500,000 white pine seedlings grown at the department’s Augusta Nursery Center are sold to local Christmas tree farms throughout the commonwealth, said Assistant Nursery Manager Joshua McLaughlin. The goal isn’t to rake in profits for the department, McLaughlin said — it’s to ensure the commonwealth stays evergreen.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
The annual holiday tradition of chopping down a Christmas tree from a local farm doesn’t just come with fond memories and green needles stuck everywhere. If you’re a Virginian, choosing to store presents under a white pine, Virginia pine, Scotch pine or Norway spruce means there’s a chance you’ll also be supporting reforestation efforts by Virginia’s Department of Forestry.
Approximately 500,000 white pine seedlings grown at the department’s Augusta Nursery Center are sold to local Christmas tree farms throughout the commonwealth, said Assistant Nursery Manager Joshua McLaughlin. The goal isn’t to rake in profits for the department, McLaughlin said — it’s to ensure the commonwealth stays evergreen.
“We’re planting white pine for the purposes that it needs to be done,” McLaughlin said. “The nurseries are 100% self-supporting, so every season’s sale and everything that we do keeps this outfit continuously running.”
Seedlings from the state nursery can also be popular among local tree farms, said Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association President Ryan Clouse. While he encourages farms to shop around and compare prices, state seedlings could be less expensive to buy in bulk compared with commercial sellers.
Longtime Christmas tree farm growers Bill Francisco and John Houston and former grower Charlie Conner all buy state seedlings for their operations. They said while Virginia Department of Forestry seedlings are grown primarily for reforestation purposes and may require more work to turn into a nice-looking tree, their benefits extend far beyond the holiday season.
“It’s relaxing for mental health for people to be able to just take a long walk in the country and wander around the field and look at trees and the scenery and the view and see wild animals perhaps and just be outside.”
– Christmas tree grower Bill Francisco
“They definitely have everything priced really good to help with reforestation and cash crop timber,” said Houston, owner of Sweet Providence Christmas Tree Farm in Floyd County, which produced the tree currently displayed in Virginia’s Executive Mansion.
“The Department of Forestry grows a very hearty seedling, and they’re nice to deal with, and it’s at a very reasonable price,” said Francisco, owner of Francisco Farms in Staunton.
Not only are white pine trees a good source of timber, said National Christmas Tree Association spokesperson Jill Sidebottom, but their tips are used for roping wreaths and other decorations.
“That has become a big business which is associated with the Christmas tree industry and isn’t talked about a lot,” Sidebottom said. “They cut the bottom branches off of trees that are 15 to 20 feet tall to harvest the tips and then allow the trees to grow up into timber.”
According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, there are more than 460 Christmas tree farms throughout the commonwealth. Virginia ranks seventh among U.S. states in terms of total Christmas tree inventory, sixth in total tree acreage in production and 13th in the number of operations with Christmas tree sales.
Virginia Christmas trees generate more than $11.5 million in sales annually, said Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matthew Lohr in a press release last month.
A new study from West Virginia University also found that shopping for a real Christmas tree is good for mental health, and the farmers said they can see why.
“Being a cut-your-own farm, I do think it’s relaxing for mental health for people to be able to just take a long walk in the country and wander around the field and look at trees and the scenery and the view and see wild animals perhaps and just be outside,” Francisco said.
One type of tree you won’t find the Virginia Department of Forestry growing: Fraser fir, one of the more popular Christmas tree species in the commonwealth, primarily grown in Southwest Virginia. But the department has helped to establish the Mount Rogers Christmas Tree Growers Association seed orchard, which grows approximately 1200 Fraser firs, said Conner, the former vice president of the association and owner of Mountain Magic Christmas Trees in Marion.
The association, alongside the department and other groups, “organized to address some research needs that needed to be taken care of, and we worked with the Forest Service as far as collecting seed for Fraser fir,” Conner said.
Clouse also purchases state seedlings for his Clouse’s Pine Hill Farm in Frederick County, but Fraser firs make up the majority of the trees he sells. However, he said the department is currently testing to see if it can grow fir tree species at the nursery.
While Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently recognized this December as “Virginia Christmas Tree Month,” ensuring Virginians have access to good quality trees and fond memories during the holidays is a year-round operation for farmers.
“We have folks that will come in and take forever to cut it down because they’re cutting it at an angle and all the kids are sitting there laughing at them,” Clouse said. “Or they’ll have some experience, ‘No, I want this tree, no, I want this tree,’ so they’re back and forth across the farm, and ultimately they come back to the first one, and that’s what they remember for Christmas time and Thanksgiving time. They’re going to talk about that — ‘You remember when Uncle Joe did this or dad did this?’”
Virginia
Virginia Basketball Holds Off Manhattan 74-65 | Key Takeaways
Virginia (4-2) got back in the win column with a 74-65 victory over Manhattan (3-3) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Here are our five quick takeaways from the Cavaliers’ win over the Jaspers.
Virginia was in serious need of a win after suffering those two humbling losses to Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. But a convincing and comfortable victory would have been even better and for a while, it seemed like the Cavaliers were on their way to doing just that. UVA led by as many as 15 points in the first half and opened up a 16-point advantage midway through the second half. But rather than putting the game away, Virginia let Manhattan hang around and the visiting Jaspers were in a situation where they were fouling to stop the clock in the final minutes, narrowing the deficit to as little as six points. A win is a win, but this was far from a confidence-boosting performance.
Virginia went with a new starting lineup on Tuesday night, as Andrew Rohde replaced TJ Power. Rohde has been playing very well recently, particularly with his resurgent outside shot, while Power came into this game shooting 25% from beyond the arc this season.
Power initially responded well to the benching, swishing a corner three shortly after he first entered the game, hitting the deck for a loose ball, and coming up with a steal to stop a Manhattan fastbreak. But he wound up playing only six minutes, fewest among Cavaliers who saw the floor in the game. That does not bode well for the Duke transfer.
Read Val’s Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.
Rohde, on the other hand, had another solid game and was perhaps the top performer for the Hoos on Tuesday night. Though he missed his only three-pointer, which was a desperation off-balanced heave at the end of the shot clock, Rohde finished with a season-high 14 points, two assists (with one turnover), two rebounds, and four steals. Rohde showed excellent feel for the game, getting exactly where he wanted to go and exhibiting some nice touch on a couple of floaters plus a short jumper off the glass. If Rohde is playing like this and his three-point shot continues to be there, this could be a big season for the former St. Thomas transfer.
The main reason why this game continued to be close deep into the second half is because UVA’s defense frequently broke down and gave up open shots to Manhattan, particularly from the perimeter. The Jaspers shot 11/26 (42.3%) from beyond the arc and and seven different players knocked down a three. A couple of those Manhattan triples were well-contested, but the vast majority of them were wide-open. That’s very concerning and shows that this Virginia defense, with its many new faces, is still very much a work in progress.
Virginia’s offense was pretty well neutralized by Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. Tuesday night against Manhattan was a small step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Let’s start with the good. Five different Cavaliers scored in double figures, including a game-high 18 points from Isaac McKneely, who hit three of his four three-point attempts and went 5/6 from the free throw line. We still think McKneely needs to shoot way more, but we’ll leave that alone for now. Dai Dai Ames scored 10 points and dished out five assists, but fouled out of the game. Blake Buchanan made his first four shots and finished with 11 points and five boards. Cofie made five of his seven shots and finished with 10 points and five boards. The best part of the game was that Virginia had 15 assists on 29 made baskets and turned the ball over only eight times, a vast improvement over the team’s turnover issues in The Bahamas.
Virginia outscored Manhattan 42-22 in the paint. That looks like a good stat, but it’s also an inevitable stat because of UVA’s size advantage over the Jaspers, whose tallest player in the rotation is 6’8″. Still, Manhattan snared 10 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second-chance points. In The Bahamas, UVA was dominated on the glass and was simply outmatched from a physicality and athleticism standpoint. Nothing we saw from the Cavaliers on Tuesday night did anything to alleviate those concerns.
Up next, Virginia remains at home for another (supposed) tune-up game against Holy Cross on Friday at 4pm at John Paul Jones Arena.
Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball
UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas
Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways
Virginia
Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball
Virginia (3-2) is set to host Manhattan (3-2) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia. Follow along with score updates, play-by-play, and live analysis for the game in the thread below. Updates will be posted at each timeout in reverse chronological order with the most recent updates at the top of the article. Refresh the page for updates.
As we await our 7pm tip between Virginia and Manhattan on the ACC Network, read a full preview of the game here: Virginia Basketball vs. Manhattan Game Preview, Score Prediction
Virginia has posted its starting five for tonight’s game:
– Dai Dai Ames
– Isaac McKneely
– Andrew Rohde
– Elijah Saunders
– Blake Buchanan
Notably, TJ Power has been replaced by Andrew Rohde in the starting lineup after starting the first five games of the season. Power is shooting 25% from three (4/16), while Rohde is currently shooting 50% from beyond the arc (7/14).
- Virginia and Manhattan will meet on Tuesday night for just the second time ever and first time since March 19th, 1993, when the Cavaliers defeated the Jaspers 78-66 in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
- UVA is 9-0 against current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
- Virginia’s last game against a MAAC team was back in 2012, when the Cavaliers defeated Fairfield 54-45 at John Paul Jones Arena.
- UVA is 2-0 at John Paul Jones Arena this season and 3-0 against unranked opponents this season.
Read more Virginia men’s basketball news and content in the links below:
UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas
Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Gets Skunked by Tennessee in The Bahamas
Virginia Basketball Falls to Tennessee 64-42 | Key Takeaways
Virginia
Suspect steals property from store, assaults employee in Virginia
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – A man has been arrested after entering a store in McLean, stealing merchandise and assaulting an employee.
The suspect has been identified as Calvin Hughes Jr, of Washington D.C.
Leesburg Pike robbery suspect
Police responded to the 8300 block of Leesburg Pike in McLean for a commercial robbery on November 21 around 11:00 a.m. According to police, the suspect entered the store, stole merchandise, and assaulted an employee.
Hughes Jr. was identified and arrested nearby for robbery and is being held without bond.
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