Silver Mountain is a fully integrated Christmas tree operation. We grow trees from seed, and sell both seedlings and mature Christmas trees. We also design and sell nursery equipment tailored to the tree industry.
Silver Mountain
Christmas Trees
4672 Drift Creek Road, SE
Sublimity, Oregon 97385
Main Farm
503-769-7127
Nursery
503-769-7133
Toll Free
800-952-3905
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Silver Mountain Christmas Trees is a Sesquicentennial Farm (owned and operated by the same Oregon family for 150 years) located in Sublimity, Oregon and is owned by Jim and Shirley Heater.
The headquarters farm was settled in 1851 by Lorenzo Dow Heater, who built a sod house on the land for his family. Over the years since, this land has grown hops, strawberries, turnips, sweet corn, whole grains, grass seed, and, beginning in 1968, Christmas Trees.
Jim and Shirley, who both grew up on farms, went into business with Jim's father, Maurice and his wife, and in 1968, they planted 13 acres of Noble fir and Douglas fir. Disappointed with their first seedlings, they nearly plowed it all under the first year, but a close friend and experienced grower encouraged them to stay the course.
Today, the Heaters oversee approximately 5,000 acres, with 3,500 acres planted in Noble fir, Douglas fir, Grand fir, Fraser fir, Nordman fir, and Canaan fir. The property also includes the 200-acre, state of the art Silver Mountain Nursery, which is the largest and newest Conifer seedling nursery in the Pacific Northwest.
Jim and Shirley focus on creating greater efficiency for their business, and the industry as a whole, and this is apparent in their remarkable growth and standing in the industry. While managing their labor carefully, they also focused on protecting the trees from damage while expediting the process of growing and harvesting. They experimented with palletizing the trees, and were one of the first two companies to use helicopters in the harvesting. Today, nearly 80% of industry uses the helicopters, quickly and safely extracting the trees from the fields on a regular basis.
In the course of developing better ways to cultivate and nurture Christmas trees from seedling to harvest, they've also developed a genetics lab to develop trees with still more desirable characteristics, such as trees with minimal needle drop and more fragrance. They've also developed three major machines now sold to others in the industry: Vacuum Precision Seeder, Reciprocating Undercutter Wrencher, and the Lateral Root Pruner.
The farm ships 300,000 to 350,000 Christmas trees a year, processing 20-24 hours a day, 6 days a week, loading nearly 500 semi-trailers in a season. Even though they work extremely long hours during the week, Silver Mountain does not work on Sunday. Many years ago we turned our harvest over to the Lord, realizing that if He wanted us to get that harvest out in six days, and honor Him on the Sabbath, He would make that happen. And He has been faithful to do that ever since.
The Heaters are active members of their community, as well as the industry at large, with memberships in the following organizations:
