Tree Pee

[slacker]

Irregular News for 11.29.06

 

Lincoln, NE -- In an attempt to prevent evergreen trees from being stolen, all of those on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's City and East campuses have been sprayed with a combination of fox urine and glycerin.

 

"It is a strong odor, and it smells just like what it is," said Kirby Baird, the landscape manager for City Campus.

 

"It is fine when it is outside," Baird said. "But once it warms up, you can't have it in your house for more than five minutes."

 

UNL has been spraying its evergreens with this potent combination of chemicals and urine for more than 12 years, Baird said. In the past four years, only one tree has been stolen from campus. That tree was sprayed with urine.

 

The spray is relatively inexpensive, and it takes only five hours to have all the trees on both campuses sprayed, Baird said.

 

Wayne Janssen, a Lincoln lawyer and owner of Tall Timber Plantation, said an "average" evergreen is valued at about $120.

 

"We have a wide range of evergreens," Janssen said. "We have trees as cheap as $9 or as expensive as $1,000."

 

A typical pine tree will cost $5.50 per foot and has been aged 10 years, and the typical fur tree will cost somewhere between $8 and $10 per foot and has aged for 15-20 years, Janssen said.

 

"Fake" Christmas trees are relatively expensive. Wal-Mart sale prices range from $24.99 for a 4-foot-tall "apartment style" Christmas tree to $198.44 for a 9-foot-tall artificial evergreen.

 

More people are picking out natural trees in recent holidays because they are actually less flammable than artificial trees as long as they are watered and purchased from a tree farm, Janssen said.

 

"Local trees are safe because they are fresh and are dated so people can see when they have been cut down," he said.

 

No trees on his lot have been cut down earlier than Thanksgiving, Janssen said.

 

"You look at a 6-foot-tall evergreen, it is anywhere between $200 and $400," Baird said. "It is a good investment to protect these trees."

 

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