Recycle Your Christmas Tree To Help Wildlife

[catbyte]

BY ANDREA POWELL

Every year, over 25 million Christmas trees are sold in the United States and used for decoration in homes – but they can have a purpose after the holiday too.

Christmas is over and you are taking the ornaments, lights and tinsel off the tree. Before you toss your Christmas tree to the curb, consider donating it to wildlife. Many animals benefit from recycled trees that they use as a toy or a home.

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https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/recycle-christmas-tree/

[catbyte]

2. What a great idea!

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Well, I'm both ways in the use of live trees...

Don't get me wrong, I'm on both sides of the issue, to use live Christmas trees vs. not using during the holidays.

Of course the pitfalls are fire hazard and that you're cutting down live trees to decorate for the holidays (different if you use a live tree in a planter and then plant later). The other side (cutting the live trees) is that I know these trees are grown by the tens of thousands just for this purpose (I had a christmas tree farm too, but actually is a lot of work to maintain so got out of the business).

So I'm undecided (live or cut). However, when I was growing the trees over the whole year, I noticed that lots of birds and other smaller critters used the trees for a variety of things, shelter, food, etc. The fields actually looked pretty good to me too when all of the trees were in the field, especially during snowstorms, and there was really no easy way to describe the feelings I had when I would walk in the fields w/ the trees.

Cutting them probably won't do the environment a lot of harm, so I decided whatever one decides (live or cut), more power to them. When I grew the trees, I usually would lose about 9 or so trees out of 10 trees originally planted (and mostly due to the elements, and surprising enough, I lost quite a few of them to deer, who would eat them up. They (the deer) would also damage the trees severely when in rutting season. The other trees would died out due to lack of rain (it was somewhat dry where I was at during the summers) or other reasons.

And of course the suggestions in the article in this original post are great. I would sometimes cut out a section of dead trees, and pile into a big pile, and they loved it (the critters).

Sorry about rambling but I saw this article and ...

Hope you all enjoyed your XMAS! A prosperous 2019 to all.

[csziggy]

12. We manage the trees on our farm to encourage wildlife

When we first bought it we did a lot of clearing but followed that up by planting several thousand trees of different varieties - dogwood, red cedar, loblolly pine, sycamore, and sawtooth oak. We also let "volunteer" trees grow up at various places.

Periodically we clear parts of the farm - just did that in the area where the barn burned down last year - but rather than make burn piles, we make brush piles as shelter for the birds and other animals. Where they are no danger to buildings or fences we leave dead trees for the woodpeckers - probably why we have seen every species of woodpecker known to live in this area.

[catrose]

4. I'm glad you included wildlife (or wildcat) sanctuaries

The big cats have such fun with the trees!

[Adrahil]

5. My town mulches them...

And uses the mulch in local parks.

[Demonaut]

6. I don't know where to find lions and tigers in Denver.

ohh, a zoo..they need ten thousand trees?

[catbyte]

10. You obviously didn't read the article. That's okay. It was merely a suggestion.

[Demonaut]

11. true but she left out other more practical and achievable ways of recycling

that everyone would love to try

I wish I knew of one.

[tammywammy]

13. The city I live in will mulch them. n/t

[StarryNite]

7. What a wonderful way to recycle!

[NickB79]

8. I just use it to add to my brush piles in the backyard

The joy of having land is that I can build big stacks of logs, sticks and dead stuff where the animals can shelter and nest, and not have to worry about neighbors calling the cops on me

[brooklynite]

9. NY. mulches them

[912gdm]

14. an aside. I worked at a large 'home improvement store' for 10 years and all the leftover trees...

were destroyed.

We weren't allowed to give them away on Christmas Eve, or donate them for mulch the day after. On 26, all the left-over trees that weren't sold went straight to the compacter.

It was the most disgusting smell of trash and concentrated evergreen, like snorting straight pine-sol. I would always avoid the back for a few days