Master gardener Kathleen Tarpo, center, watches students as they make balsam wreaths during a class at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Falmouth on Dec. 2. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

FALMOUTH — The sweet, fresh scent of balsam fir mixed with soft rustling and snipping as Kathy Tarpo stood in the front of the room, bunching a few branches together.

She instructed about a dozen people on the secrets of wreath-making, like cutting your branches early and ensuring the needles are facing “sunny-side-up.”

Tarpo, a master gardener volunteer for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, taught the class at the university’s learning center in Falmouth earlier this month. Community members joined to learn about the state’s iconic industry and create their own wreaths with balsam fir tips harvested by a local Buxton couple.

Some people, like Dd Swan, brought their own supplies from home — red berries and branches from her backyard meadow in Freeport.

While she’s made wreaths before, the class was an exciting opportunity for her to learn about the Maine tradition, especially as someone who grew up in the South, she said.

“I’ve lived here a long time but I love the four seasons and that winter’s actually cold,” she said. “There are all these beautiful pine trees, so it’s really fun. I’m a maker … I do anything that’s hands-on. This is just another way of doing that.”

Dd Swan, of Freeport, adds ornaments to a wreath during a class at the University of Maine Cooperative in Falmouth on Dec. 2. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Maine produces a few million balsam fir wreaths per year, according to David Fuller, a retired University of Maine agriculture expert. While the state doesn’t track the industry, he bases his estimate on the number of wreath rings sold by Kelco Industries in Milbridge, which he said supplies most of the state.

It’s a second source income for some farmers in the colder months, with little overhead cost and a decent return.

HOW BIG IS THE INDUSTRY?

Wreaths are made with the tips of balsam fir trees, harvested by hand by snapping off about 1 to 2 feet from the end of a branch. If harvested too early in the season, the needles will fall off. But after three consecutive freezing nights, when the needles’ waxy layer thickens, the tips are good to harvest, Fuller said.

Bo Dennis, the owner of Dandy Ram Farm in Monroe, said his team produces about 200 wreaths a year, made from about 1,000 pounds of tips.

The farm gets its tips from various lease agreements he has with local landowners from central Maine to Down East.

He eyes locations that aren’t super densely packed with trees, so the light can reach all of the branches.

“I don’t want to harvest from a tree that is wicked scraggly or yellow because then I won’t get a beautiful product from it,” he said. “We really are trying to sell a higher-end quality balsam, sustainably harvested wreath.”

This year, Dennis drove to an overgrown Christmas tree farm in Freedom, sporting his hunter orange, to harvest tips with a few coworkers. Safety and permission are important, Dennis said, because he harvests during hunting season — around mid-November.

Sandi Dunham, of Cape Elizabeth, and Kristen Fox, of Falmouth, look over some balsam fir tips. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

To make the double-faced wreaths, he sorts the brush and sets up tables for himself and his coworkers around a wreath-making machine. One person is snapping the balsam while another person places the tips into the machine, which wraps the wire from the 12-inch ring around the branch.

Customers could pre-order wreaths as early as Nov. 1, Dennis said. About 75% of the wreaths bought are shipped out through the U.S. Postal Service. Wholesale, the wreaths cost from $42 to $45; the retail cost is $55 to $65.

CHALLENGES FOR WREATH-MAKERS

There are some challenges to the industry. The tips themselves aren’t extremely valuable, but can sell for about 75 cents per pound, Fuller said, and each year the state investigates some thefts.

Sgt. Brian Getchell, a Maine Forest Service ranger from the Down East district, said the state has seen about 13 complaints about illegal evergreen bough thefts, eight of which happened in Washington and Hancock Counties.

Forest rangers are on the lookout for people taking balsam fir tips without permission, which they often bind around a large stick. Good tippers can take hundreds of pounds a day, he said.

Dd Swan of Freeport puts together a balsam fir wreath. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

If rangers find people harvesting without permission, they issue a summons and seize their haul. The brush is then taken to a nearby wreath-maker, partly so the forest service can have an appraisal for how much the brush is worth and partly to avoid wasting the tips.

Then, if the suspect is found guilty in court (a Class C or D misdemeanor in Maine), the cash goes to the landowner. If they are found not guilty, they can pick up the check from the wreath-maker.

While Dennis said he hasn’t heard much about illegal tippers directly impacting local wreath sales, he said it is important that companies are transparent with customers about where their greens are sourced and have fair and healthy labor practices. Having relationships with landowners is crucial, he said.

Both Fuller and Dennis said it’s essential that tips are taken sustainably, not over-harvested or snapped off too early in the season, so farmers can return again and again.

“With a forestry product like this, you’re not thinking in an annual cycle, you’re thinking about the long-term health of the relationship with that plot of land, which I find beautiful about this industry,” Dennis said. “You’re coming back to the same spots every year, this perennial relationship.”