(WWJ) -- Christmas is still well over a month away, but experts say you might want to start looking for a tree sooner than later.
WWJ’s Beth Fisher reports that supplies are tight this year for both real and artificial trees throughout Michigan.
Artificial tree supplies are being affected by supply chain issues that have been plaguing many industries over the last several months.
As for the live trees, Michigan State University Professor of Horticulture and Forestry, Bert Cregg, tells WWJ that the Great Recession in the late 2000s is actually partially to blame for the present-day shortage.
Cregg says the Christmas tree industry is cyclic, so trees that are ready for Christmas 2021 were actually planted about a decade ago.
“Where was our economy eight to ten years ago? We were in recession or at least coming out of the recession at that point,” Cregg explains. “And so a lot of growers had scaled back, some had even gotten out of the market."
"It takes a little while for these things to transfer through," Cregg added, "so now we’re seeing some of that.”
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