Getting Ready for Christmas & Farmland Saved

Getting Ready for Christmas & Farmland Saved. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Statistics show that in the last 50 years farmland has been decreasing primarily due to urban sprawl. Chalk one up for the farmer. A 140-acre farm near Arlington, Washington has been saved from development. The land was ready to go on the auction block but a young third generation farmer, Andrew Albert, managed to lease the land and will be planting and growing his new crop this next year. Between 2007 and 2012, in Washington state alone the total area of farmland decreased by over 224-thousand acres.

Christmas is this week and a lot of people pull many different customs and influences together for their holiday. According to extension specialist, Craig McKinney, European influence in various forms led to the custom of the Christmas tree coming to America in the mid 19th century.

McKINNEY: One of the first recorded episodes was in 1846, Queen Victoria in England, somehow there was a drawing or a daguerreotype of her standing next to a Christmas tree and when the Queen does something obviously that's going to get a lot of people excited.

The first Christmas tree in the U.S. was put up in the White House by President Franklin Pierce in 1856 which prompted the use of Christmas trees in the U.S.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.