Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
A seventh-generation Maryland Christmas tree farmer is sounding the alarm about a 500-kilovolt power line that could one day cut through her field of Douglas firs and blue spruces.
The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) is the first of several transmission line projects across Maryland that aim to bolster the reliability of the state’s power grid and affordability for consumers, according to the project’s website. However, rural Maryland farmer Lisa Gaver told NBC News that MPRP’s 67-mile transmission line is nothing more than an “extension cord” for data centers in Northern Virginia, and that she wants no part of it.
Unlike buried or less obtrusive infrastructure, this overhead high-voltage line would tower above the treeline, making it visually prominent from nearly every vantage point on the farm. The proposed MPRP line will cut diagonally across her 40-acre Christmas tree field, skimming a parking lot, traversing wooded areas, and crossing a metal deer fence designed to protect crops from wildlife, which Gaver fears will cause massive financial losses, as patrons will not want to pick pumpkins, cut down Christmas trees, or take family photos with power lines towering over the farm. Additionally, any lost inventory in the Christmas tree field could pose a long-term setback as these trees take 7-10 years to mature for sale.
“It’s going to financially devastate us,” Gaver told the outlet. “There’s $4 million worth of inventory in this field.”
People cart a freshly cut pine tree through Gaver Farm in Mount Airy, Maryland, on December 17, 2023, eight days before Christmas. (Photo by JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Like many farmers, Gaver and her husband turned their humble Christmas tree farm, which they started as newlyweds in the 1980s, into a destination for social media lovers to snap photos in front of antique-style backdrops. Now she worries that all the hard work they’ve put into making their family farm profitable will be undone by MPRP. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
“It’s hard to say, ‘I worked and built this up for 43 years and someone’s just going to walk in and destroy it as a land grab for out-of-state corporations,’” Gaver said. “It’s devastating.”
Gaver is just one of many farmers across the U.S. at the heart of the growing conflict between the U.S.’s push for technological supremacy and rural farmers and families whose lives will be disrupted to make way for expanding utility needs. It’s not just economic losses but the emotional hardship that comes with having little say in the process that takes over beleaguered stewards of American family legacies across the nation, as the march for AI data centers takes over rural areas.
I understand the need to provide the infrastructure to win the technology race. We cannot allow insidious countries, like China, to control the marketplace for AI and other technological advances. However, at what cost? We talk a lot about the critical need for Americans to have jobs that evoke pride and a sense of ownership in this country’s past and future. How is this plan any different than sending good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas, devastating the middle class in the process? Do these farms not matter because they don’t provide a useful service to the government and our growing tech-overlord class? (Disaster Ensues After AI Behemoth Floats Idea Of Stealing Your Tax Dollars If They Fail)
It’s actually very simple. Christmas tree farms like the Gaver’s need to be kept clean and pure from these intrusions. They are an important part of American culture that will be erased and replaced if we allow them to go down without a fight. As of right now, it seems that no one is listening.
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