Across the country, Christmas trees are becoming more expensive. The increasing scarcity of the holiday symbol has farmers and consumers alike worried about what the future holds for the industry.

Michael Smolak, a tree farmer in Massachusetts, said that he and his workers planted over 4,000 trees in the spring. When it came time to sell them in the fall, every single one had died.

“They all dried up,” he told The Boston Globe. “In all my years that I’ve been doing this — and I’ve been doing this for over 50 years — I’ve never seen such such a deep drought."

Like several other areas throughout the globe, New England was hit with a drought over the summer that affected multiple states. In July, 94 percent of Massachusetts was experiencing "modern or worse" conditions.

Though it's not just in the Northeast that Christmas trees are dying. The problem has spanned down south into North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma, where farmers are finding themselves unable to keep their trees healthy.

Spokeswoman for the National Christmas Tree Association, Jill Sidebottom, added that while full grown trees can be resilient, newly planted ones — which the industry relies on — are especially vulnerable.

“If trees are planted, and it gets really dry soon after, those seedlings may die or may not survive," she explained.

Smolak opened his farm they day after Thanksgiving, but then closed it only hours later due to concerns that is was not “fair to the public” to sell dried-out, brown trees. He was able to keep the farm open by importing 2,000 trees from Quebec, which was not affected by severe droughts. He also had to apply for financial assistance from the federal government to break even.

Still, other farms were not so lucky. Several other farms in the area closed for the season, with Bedrock Christmas Tree Farm in Rhode Island writing in announcement on their website: “The summer drought took its toll on our Fraser firs. They will need this year to recover. Everybody do the rain dance!”

As for the cause of the droughts, the NCTA cites climate change as the devastating "Scrooge" of the season, affecting precipitation in certain areas. Research shows that winter snow has also been affected by increasing global temperatures, as already-cold areas have seen worse storms, whereas mild climates are seeing less. Rainfall has been affected similarly.

While updated irrigation systems built for farms would help curtail the problem, they are expensive to fund and maintain, and are not always powered on green energy. Experts say the only long-term solution is to cut global emissions, which the world is failing to adhere to.

As for how Christmas tree farms will stay in business throughout the years to come, Smolak isn't sure.

He said: “What the future brings for Christmas trees, I’m really uncertain."