durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, December 15, 2023 | 6 A month-long investigation led by Durham police has resulted in the recovery of more than $2.5-million-worth of stolen vehicles and charges against 11 individuals. Project Redstart, which saw Durham police working in conjunction with Canadian Border Services and police in Gatineau, Quebec, was launched in November with the goal of targeting auto theft networks run by organized crime, police said. "Project Redstart was initiated because of the high number of vehicle thefts occurring daily within our community," police said in a statement Dec. 7. The investigation traced a criminal network that originated in Montreal and operated throughout the GTA, police said. The project culminated in the recovery of 33 stolen vehicles valued at more than $2.2 million and the arrests of 11 people, who face a total of 55 charges. Auto theft is an ongoing concern in Durham and other municipalities, and was highlighted during a recent talk on crime stats by Chief Todd Rollauer. More than 800 reports of vehicle theft had been made in the region as of the end of October, Rollauer noted. In announcing the results of the investigation, Durham police reminded residents they have a role to play in curbing auto thefts. "Remember to lock your vehicle and not store your key near the front door," police said in a statement. More information is available on the Durham police website. DURHAM-LED AUTO THEFT INVESTIGATION LEADS TO 11 ARRESTS JEFF MITCHELL jmitchell@durhamregion.com people to cut trees," said Youmans near the end of November. "We would love to continue selling more, but we just have to protect our fields and ensure that we have trees available for the following years." The Spademan farm has been growing Christmas trees for three decades now, but nothing compares to the crush of people that rushed out to purchase natural trees in 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic when families stuck at home and unable to get together with friends sought to create their own adventures by cutting down a tree. On top of that demand, the number of Christmas tree farms in the area continues to dwindle while a population explosion across Durham means more and more customers -- and less farmland to grow trees -- said Youmans. It can take anywhere from eight to a dozen years to grow a tree to a harvestable size and weather conditions can play a large role in the success of their growth. While the Spademan farm had no problem sourcing seedlings from a supplier, some of the just over 3,000 seedlings planted last year -- by hand -- were lost due to the heat and dry conditions of the 2022 summer, said Youmans. After some consideration of their "bittersweet problem," it's likely that the Spademan Tree Farm will close around Dec. 8 due to a lack of supply, although some pre-cut trees may still be available. "This is our third year in a row now where we've had to close the gates early and it's not something we like doing," said Youmans. "We really want people to come and enjoy the tradition and get their own Christmas tree, it's just we cannot keep up with the demand. We simply can't." Further west, at Cormack's Christmas Tree Farm in Uxbridge, the demand for trees has prompted the three-generation family business to scale back on the number of weekends it's open to the public. Typically, the Cormack family aims to sell about 500 trees each holiday season, but during the surge of interest in 2020 they sold about four times that amount, said Mike Cormack. The high demand for natural trees, he noted, has not cooled off. "Now we're only open two weekends -- we used to be open four weekends -- and we just don't have the inventory. I don't think anybody does," said Cormack. While seedlings were in short supply at the height of the pandemic -- the Cormacks could only get 500 in 2020 -- the family managed to plant 5,500 new trees in 2021 and another 4,000 this year. However, even though the seedlings got into the ground, weather still wreaked havoc with the tree crops in 2022 as a late May frost and then drought conditions in the summer "killed almost everything," said Cormack. "Any kind of business based on Mother Nature is not really the best thing to be in right now," said Cormack, estimating the 2032 to 2034 Christmas tree crops will be a "little thin for supply" due to this year's weather. The shrinking supply and rising cost of Christmas trees is the result of several factors including unprecedented demand and inflation, says Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association. "Inflation has gone up which means that this past year fertilizer increased 25 per cent and the cost of fuel and transportation has gone up, all of which affects the price of a Christmas tree," Brennan said. The association estimates that the business of Christmas trees was a $53 million industry in 2015 and that has surged to more than $100 million in 2020. And, the shortage is further exacerbated when factoring in that roughly 20,000 acres of Christmas tree farms have been lost between 2011 and 2021 in large part due to a lack of workers, many of whom are retiring with no succession plan for their farms, Brennan said. "That 20,000 acres that we've lost in those 10 years is equivalent to 30 million trees," she said. For more information about Spademan Tree Farm, visit www.spademantreefarm.com and Cormack's Christmas Tree Farm can be found at www.cormacktrees.com. - With files from Torstar STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With Christmas quickly approaching, the Port Perry Star took a look at how local tree farms are doing this season across North Durham. NEWS Continued from page 1 'WE JUST DON'T HAVE THE INVENTORY. I DON'T THINK ANYBODY DOES' "This is our third year in a row now where we've had to close the gates early and it's not something we like doing." - Sarah Youmans, Spademan Tree Farm SCAN THE CODE to read more Durham news online. FIND BREAKING NEWS DAILY AT DURHAMREGION.COM