Recycling your Christmas tree

[At Friends of Trees, our mission is to plant trees throughout the Portland-Vancouver, Eugene-Springfield and Salem metro areas. At this time of year, however, we field a lot of questions about what to do with cut, dead and leftover Christmas trees. While we unable to accept these trees, there are many options for recycling your Christmas. In this post, Maymie Higgins and Neva Knott explore the different ways Christmas tree recycling is happening throughout the United States, as well as here in Oregon.]

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By Maymie Higgins and Neva Knott

Here in Oregon, throughout January, Trout Unlimited is accepting donations of trees to be used for creating and supplementing river habitat for fish. Primarily, the shade from the trees provides spawning pools. KOIN TV reports that “The old trees are used to re-create historical conditions supporting juvenile coho. The young fish spend their first year in streams before migrating to the ocean, and they rely on healthy freshwater habitats for food, protection and relief from strong currents.” Fisheries biologists also use discarded Christmas trees to provide a place for aquatic insects to live and grow. These insects attract small fish that are fed upon by larger fish.

Placing Christmas trees in the dunes of North Carolina beach communities is a long-standing post holiday tradition. Scientists there have developed a technique of sea dune restoration by strategically placing Christmas trees along dunes to help the natural process of collecting sand to rebuild dunes that experience harsh wave action and escarpment during the winter ocean movements and storms. Dunes are critical for stabilizing beaches and preventing inland flooding and are important habitat for beach dwelling wildlife.

Another terrific place to recycle live Christmas trees is your own back yard. The National Christmas Tree Association provides recycling options and tips, including safety tips because it is very important that all tinsel and decorations be removed so as not to jeopardize the safety of wildlife.  Writer Maymie Higgins’s favorite method of recycling her Christmas tree is to add it to the permanent brush pile on the back of her property, “Over the years, I’ve sat on my deck and watched wrens, nuthatches, titmice, bunnies and many other species use the brush pile for cover and nesting activities.”

News of Christmas tree recycling for the environment is spreading quickly, enough so that NPR published a poem about it.

You could say that Christmas tree recycling is the gift that gives all year long. At least, that’s the way Higgins feel as she enjoys the free and never-ending wildlife documentary that happens in her own back yard long after the store-bought presents have been unwrapped.

— Neva Knott is a Crew Leader with Friends of Trees and runs The Ecotone Exchange, a blog of positive stories of the environment. Maymie Higgins is a contributing writer to The Ecotone Exchange.