A family tradition since the 1960s

Rich Palzewic

Staff

December 8, 2025

NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN – With 1,000 acres of land and upward of 700,000 trees in the ground, Owner Josh Koehler said Central Wisconsin Evergreens (CWE) – located at N2160 Wisconsin Hwy 17 in Merrill – is one of the largest evergreen wholesalers in the state and, perhaps, the Midwest.

“We don’t do anything retail in this area – just wholesale,” he said. “In Wisconsin, especially Lincoln County, where we’re based out of, there are so many tree farms available for people to cut their own [Christmas trees]. That’s not something we’d probably ever deal with or get into.”

Though customers cannot visit the Merrill farm to cut down their own trees, CWE does operate two retail lots in the Des Moines, Iowa, area.

“If you want one of our Christmas trees [off a retail lot], you’ll have to travel to Iowa,” he laughed. “One of the lots our family has had since 1972, and this year, we were invited to open a second lot. It’s at Water Works Park, a 1,500-acre park in Des Moines. We donated a 20-foot tree and built a stand for it. The mayor came to light up the tree, and Santa Claus and his reindeer also made an appearance.”

Koehler said CWE’s work is essentially finished for the season by the time Thanksgiving arrives.

“We just got done sending out our last semi loads of the season,” he said. “We sell between 30,000 and 50,000 Christmas trees a year, but by Thanksgiving, we’re done.”

During the 2025 season, Koehler said CWE sent out 187 semi-truck loads of Christmas trees.

“We ship all over the United States and Canada,” he said. “One of our biggest customers is actually in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It’s kind of funny – a lot of trees come into the States from Canada, but that particular customer in Winnipeg has been a customer of ours for many years. I guess he’s comfortable with us and likes how we do things.”

Koehler said CWE recently delivered a load of Christmas trees to Flagstaff, Arizona, and regularly delivers trees to Oklahoma, Nebraska and South Dakota.

“When shipping nursery stock, it’s typically to Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin,” he said.

The 20-foot-tall Christmas tree CWE sent to Des Moines, Koehler said, likely grew for 18 to 20 years.

“Once they get bigger, they grow a little quicker because you’re letting the tops grow and not shearing them as hard,” he said.

Springtime brings more work again

Koehler said that once the season wraps up, things stay relatively calm until spring, when the work really ramps up again.

“This past spring, we put 114,000 trees back into the ground,” he said. “Basically, we’re on a 10-year rotation with the trees, which makes it different from any other type of farming. We put all the work into planting the trees and don’t see any revenue from them until about year seven.”

Koehler said years seven through nine are the harvest window for Christmas trees.

“That’s why I need 1,000 acres – so much of the land is tied up,” he said. “The way we plant our trees, we can get between 1,100 and 1,300 trees an acre. To keep up, we need to turn over 70-100 acres a year.”

To maintain the farm’s 700,000-tree “herd” through planting, pruning and harvesting, Koehler said he depends on six full-time employees and a seasonal team of 22-24 workers.

“With my seasonal workforce, I use H-2A labor out of Mexico,” he said. “The same basic core of guys has been coming to our place for 16 years. They’re the ones who are doing all the pruning and all the physical labor. I house them because that’s how that program works.”

Koehler said the H-2A labor program has strict rules.

“They are here on an agricultural work visa, and they are only allowed to work for me,” he said. “They can’t stay here year-round, so after the work season, they go home. [They typically arrive] in the first few weeks of April. With the H-2A designation, they are very limited in what they can do. I have to list every farm they’re going to work on for the season in the contract before we start.”

Six decades in business

Koehler said his family entered the evergreen business in the 1960s, originally operating under the name Badger Evergreen.

“The company was really big, and things were run by the kids of the family,” he said. “In 1989, they split, and my uncle – one of the sons – branched off and started Central Wisconsin Evergreens. We’ve been in the industry for a long, long time, but Central Wisconsin Evergreens officially began operations in 1990-91.”

In June 2021, Koehler said he purchased the farm from his uncle.

“I have a business background, so mainly, it’s been taking things and processes and making them better and more efficient,” he said. “My uncle had a really good business and a good customer base. I’m trying to build the company size a bit.”

Though he only took over operations a little more than four years ago, Koehler said he has been involved in the business since childhood.

“My mom and her sister ran the wreath and roping division, so I was involved in that,” he said.

Koehler said he started operating an excavator in high school, a skill he continued to use through his college years.

“When I graduated from college in 2004, I got into the heavy highway world,” he said. “At that time, I wasn’t involved with Central Wisconsin Evergreens, because I was chasing my other dream. We started a new company in 2006 that got very large quickly.”

The stress from the new company, Koehler said, eventually led him back to the CWE farm.

“I walked away from the other company in 2020 because it was just too much for me,” he said. “One thing led to another, and God had better plans for me than I did. He led me back to the farm. My uncle needed some help, so I started helping him. Then I figured out he wanted to retire.”

Koehler said he spent the following winters figuring out how to buy out his uncle’s share of the business.

“I have a way better balance with work and family now and way less stress, too,” he said. “I don’t have to work every night or weekend anymore. It’s also cool that the family business is still going.”

For more information on Central Wisconsin Evergreens, visit centralwisconsinevergreens.com.