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TOM ROBERTSON: Mindy Bowman's family has been making Christmas wreaths and other evergreen products for about 35 years in Bemidji.

MINDY BOWMAN: These people are making cedar sprays. They cut balsam and cedar, cover the balsam over so that it doesn't show. It's just kind of a backing.

TOM ROBERTSON: The company, Minnesota Wood Products, employs 120 people for about eight weeks a year, producing more than 100,000 wreaths, sprays, and centerpieces for sale by Boy Scouts, high school bands, and other nonprofit organizations in 22 states. Bowman says natural evergreen wreaths have one huge advantage over plastic ones-- the smell.

MINDY BOWMAN: When our boxes arrive, that's the comment that I think we probably hear the most, is that they open up the boxes, and it's just that smell of the balsam and Christmas, is just overwhelming to somebody who isn't used to that.

TOM ROBERTSON: Bowman buys about 200 tons of balsam boughs each year from people like Arnie Peterson of Northome. Peterson, a retired construction worker, has been cutting boughs for about 10 years. He says it's tough work.

ARNIE PETERSON: You've got to like the woods. It takes a special individual to really, I guess, like the bough pick. And if you really like to enjoy the woods and willing to work hard-- it's hard work. And if you're willing to do that, it's-- you enjoy it.

TOM ROBERTSON: On a good day, Peterson can cut 900 to 1,000 pounds of boughs. But he says it's a highly competitive business and not getting any easier. Cutters can get about $300 per ton. But while boughs were once readily accessible along the sides of roads, Peterson must now go deep into the woods to find them.

ARNIE PETERSON: It's getting harder and harder because the boughs are so far back in the woods. And you've got to carry them out. And you put a string in your pocket. And you just keep hiking now. There's nothing right along the roads left. And you just keep hiking until you find the trees. They're suitable for it.

TOM ROBERTSON: There has been concern over the past decade that a growing wreath industry and intensified harvesting of balsam boughs was beginning to take a heavy toll on the trees. This past spring, federal and state land managers, wreath industry representatives, and others got together to form a partnership aimed at protecting and sustaining the balsam bough resource. Howard Zeeman is a Chippewa National Forest employee and partnership coordinator. He says one of the main goals of the group is to educate bough cutters on proper harvesting techniques that won't damage the trees.

HOWARD ZEEMAN: There's no question that improper cutting hurts and damages the balsam tree. We've had some, in the past, people breaking branches instead of cutting them properly with the proper tools. So we've come a long ways. We've had instances where people have cut the whole tree down. That's illegal.

TOM ROBERTSON: The partnership this fall sponsored three Northern Minnesota workshops for bough cutters, which included demonstrations of proper cutting and how wreaths are manufactured. The group is also distributing literature with the same message. The measures seem to be working. Joe Ahern owns Evergreen Industries, a manufacturing plant based in Inver Grove Heights. He's also a partnership member.

JOE AHERN: They set down some parameters that pretty much reduce the waste and improve the quality of the boughs that are being harvested. We've seen this year that the length and the type of bough that we get is much, much better than we have in prior years.

TOM ROBERTSON: Back at the wreath manufacturing plant in Bemidji, Mindy Bowman agrees the industry is doing a better job at policing itself.

MINDY BOWMAN: And I really think there's been a general awareness that it is a finite resource if you do it wrong. And it's a renewable resource if you do it right. And I really do believe that our boughs have been better since the education process has been brought to the forefront.

TOM ROBERTSON: Bowman prepares, somewhat reluctantly, to wrap up the seasonal work she began in October. She says her operation is like Santa's workshop.

MINDY BOWMAN: It's a fun business. Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

TOM ROBERTSON: And Bowman's employees, too, can't help but get caught up in the spirit of the season. Donna Anderson is clipping and crimping a bough for a wreath. She says the natural magic works at her home, too.

DONNA ANDERSON: Definitely. My kids say, when I come home, that I smell like Christmas. They're tickled pink. They're ready for Christmas.

TOM ROBERTSON: The Balsam Bough Partnership will meet again this spring to reevaluate its efforts. In Bemidji, I'm Tom Robertson, Minnesota Public Radio.