Neil and Deb Krueger’s love for their land is obvious every spring, when it comes time to spray for aphids.

Instead of insecticides, the owners of Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm in Lake Elmo use a homemade mix of peppermint castile soap and neem oil to get rid of the bothersome bugs.

“We aren’t certified organic, but our goal is to be organic someday,” said Neil Krueger, whose parents started growing Christmas trees in 1954. “We use a lot of alternative methods such as mulching and mowing and cover crops to minimize herbicide use.”

The Kruegers have been committed to sustainable agriculture since they took over the management of the farm from Neil Krueger’s parents 30 years ago. Now, thanks to an agreement with the Minnesota Land Trust, the land will be preserved in perpetuity.

The couple, along with their son John, recently completed a conservation easement on 36 acres of the 46-acre farm, meaning that part of the farm now has permanent restrictions on development and will remain as open space.

“We’re trying to do our part in our little neck of the woods,” Neil Krueger said.

Said John Krueger: “We have a family connection to this land, and that amplifies the importance of keeping it open space. Now it’s going to be protected and not be destroyed by a housing development or something like that.”

The Kruegers have been committed to environmentally conscious practices and priorities for decades, but the conservation easement means “future generations of the community will forever continue to benefit from the visual, natural, wildlife and watershed qualities of the farm,” Deb Krueger said.

Minnesota Land Trust

The Minnesota Land Trust concentrates its efforts on protecting habitat for wildlife, fish and other species and native plant communities such as prairies, forests, blufflands and wetlands. It also focuses on lakes, rivers and streams and scenic landscapes, particularly those with local community significance.

The organization has helped protect nearly 80,000 acres of land across Minnesota.

The conservation easement on the Krueger Tree Farm covers agricultural land, grasslands, a forested area, wetlands and a pond, said Wayne Ostlie, the organization’s director of land protection.

“It’s habitat protection, but also the agricultural and open-space values that are so important to communities as well,” Ostlie said.

All conservation easements held by the Minnesota Land Trust are perpetual, applying to the current owner and all future landowners, Ostlie said.

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The Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm conservation easement will allow for agricultural enterprises like tree growing, hay production and the growing of fruits and berries and other specialty crops in the future. It also allows “for protection of the natural habitats,” Ostlie said. “Those areas that are natural will always be natural.”

Ostlie, who lives in neighboring Stillwater, said he knows how much Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm means to the area and “what a truly important community feature it is, especially during the holiday season.”

“It is just a cornerstone of what makes Lake Elmo such a special place to live,” Ostlie said. “It’s really a community center in that way. We have the opportunity to protect some open space that in many different ways really serves the community.”

The Kruegers donated both the value of the easement and the associated project costs and funding for the longer-term stewardship and enforcement of the easement — “an incredibly generous gift that will be a benefit for generations,” Ostlie said.

“It’s remarkable that the Kruegers have taken a long-term view in protecting this community resource, while personally financing the conservation easement,” Ostlie said. “We don’t often see that, but this multi-generational family endeavor is all about that.”

A 10-year crop, with environmental benefits

A section of Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm in Lake Elmo. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Neil Krueger’s paternal grandparents, Fred and Augusta Krueger, arrived in Lake Elmo in the 1890s. “They came from Indiana by oxen-drawn wagon because they heard the air was better up here for allergies,” he said. “They settled a half-mile east of this farm and spent the first year or so in an earthen dugout. The first priority was to build a barn, so they built the barn before their house. They were dairy farmers.”

Deb Krueger is a descendant of the Bronson family, which was known for their involvement in the lumber industry in the St. Croix River Valley during the late 1800s to the 1930s, she said. “That lumbering period did not replant the hills along the river, and soon the lumber was gone,” she said. “Now we are putting those little seedlings back into the ground with best sustainable practices.”

Neil Krueger’s parents, Al and Elaine Krueger, started their Christmas tree business in 1954 on a 100-acre farm in Baytown Township. Deb and Neil Krueger bought his grandparents’ 30-acre farm in Lake Elmo in 1983 and starting planting trees on the property; they opened Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm in 1993. Neil is 75, and Deb is 72. Son John, 46, who lives in Mahtomedi, is now the majority owner.

The farm sells a variety of trees: balsam fir, Canaan fir, Fraser fir, Korean fir, Siberian fir, white pine, Norway pine and Scotch pine. Each tree takes about 10 years to grow.

“When we think of a crop farm, that’s generally a three-month endeavor, but with Christmas trees, because it takes 10 years to grow a tree, during that time, there are so many environmental benefits – for birds, for animals, for the land, for the soil, for all kinds of things that are involved,” Deb Krueger said. “That’s one of the reasons we wanted to preserve that land and to teach others what they can do with their land to help the bees and the birds and everything.”

The Kruegers often host local school groups for field trips at the farm. The students tour the operation and learn about “what’s underneath the soil – what lives in there, and how important it is for all of them to work together on a tree farm,” Deb Krueger said.

Healthy soil is key to a healthy tree farm. The Kruegers grind up tree stumps in the field “so they can decompose into the ground,” Deb Krueger said. “The process helps lock in soil organisms and keeps that whole ecosystem in place.”

Deb Krueger said every decision made at the farm is done with the next generations of farmers in mind. The couple have four grandchildren: Logan Schilling, 22; Maya Schilling, 19; Evelyn Krueger, 11; and Ben Krueger, 9.

“We are learning slowly that there are places that need to be kept and protected from encroachment,” she said. “We need to support those for our children’s future.”

Conservation easement

Lake Elmo has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, and the Kruegers say it has been exciting to see the energy and life all the new families and businesses moving into the area bring to the community.

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But the building boom has made it clear why a conservation easement on the land was so important, Neil Krueger said.

“We have a love of the outdoors, and we want to protect that for future generations,” said Neil Krueger, who took early retirement from Andersen Corp. in Bayport in 2003 and started a 3,100-mile trek on the Continental Divide Trail. His journey – which he did in stages, alone and with friends – took 188 days of hiking and biking over an eight-year period.

A conservation easement is one of the few tools that a land owner has to protect land in perpetuity, Neil Krueger said.

“Most landowners opt for the highest dollar,” he said. “We have to get to the point where we value land and open space and nature more than the dollar because nature gives us so many things.”