Dear Astrid,

Thank you for writing. The trees are actually in Idaho about 35 miles from the Canadian border near the town of Bonner’s Ferry. The forest service originally owned the land where the balsam trees grew and Young Living acquired it at an auction.

This was a 60 acre Christmas tree farm that had never been cut and had grown too large for commercial purposes. Young Living did their investigating and agreed to take only 5 acres to begin with until they had time to do their testing—GC and Mass Spec plus using it on their clients in their clinic.

What they found was that this oil was 98% monoterpenes. It was shown to have anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties and it drops cortisol levels as proven by lab tests on clients at their clinic. They were using this Idaho balsam fir not only through diffusing but also through ingestion. Their research also showed a 80% decrease in MCF7 aggressive breast cancer cells and substantiated by studies done in Japan and Europe.

YL is not raping a forest in Idaho—they are re-foresting after they cut and clear the land, planting new trees that are better spaced than the ones they are cutting down. These trees are too old for balsams and are dying. They have found that there is as much oil in the heartwood asthere is in the green needles which is unusual for conifers trees where the oil is primarily in the needles and branches and very little in the bark and heartwood. Their tests this week shows that the oil from the heartwood is just as potent as the oil from the needles which surprised all of the distillers.

The best time of the year to cut balsam is actually winter and so YL is at this very moment doing a harvest at Bonner’s Ferry. There are many volunteers joining Gary Young right now for the harvest. Gary is having a conference call with hundreds of people all across the country so that is why I am able to tell you all this information.

Linda Smith

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Wow, LInda. Thank you so much for your swift and thorough reply. I hope this answers Brer’s questions. ~ A. Lee

I will contact the author and post her response on the blog here. Give me a little time to find out.

young living customer service says the oil they market as abies balsamea is in fact abies grandis, a totally different tree. although still a pine.