ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Nov. 16, 2013 photo, tree farmer Jeff Pollard inspects a Turkish fir seedling on one of his farms in Bakersville, N.C. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) BAKERSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Jeff Pollard trudged up the steep slope and stopped at a desiccated, rust-brown tree. Two months earlier, workers had tagged this Fraser fir as ready for market. It was going to be someone's Christmas tree. And now it was dead. "Never get paid back for this tree," he said with a shrug. "Eleven years of work — gone." The culprit: Phytophthora root rot, a water mold that, once in the soil, makes it unfit for production. Pollard has been growing Fraser fir in these western North Carolina mountains for...
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