Spreading holiday magic all year long: Students learn recycling Christmas trees has value
|
That’s why, for the third year in a row, McMinnville’s Department of Urban Forestry has established drop-off points around town for people to dump their old Christmas trees and have them turned into mulch.
Monday was the deadline to drop off old trees, and Wednesday was the day National Honor Society students at Boyd Christian collected them. It took the better part of the morning for the 13 National Honor Society members to round up an estimated 150 trees.
“At the end I was pretty worn out,” said Boyd student Mary Reynolds. “Especially when I had basketball practice after that. But it’s good to help people out by taking their old Christmas trees and making them into something useful.”
The Boyd students used four pickup trucks of their own and also received help from urban forestry workers in another truck. The trees were taken back to the Department of Urban Forestry on Chancery Street where urban forester Nick Kuhn will use a wood chipper to turn them into mulch.
“The good thing about recycling the Christmas trees is you get mulch that’s more acidic,” said Kuhn. “I can use it on specific trees around town and not have to amend the soil.”
Kuhn also said his department is in the process of collecting the live Christmas trees it distributed to downtown merchants. Those trees will be planted around the city’s water treatment plant to provide a barrier.
Another unique Christmas tree recycling project involved Freddie Morton, owner of the Inn at Harvest Farms Lake. Morton plans to sink several Christmas trees in the lake behind his inn and that will create a reef for fish.
“You strip the needles off the tree and then you take it to the spot you want to sink it,” said Morton. “You tie a couple of them together, attach a concrete block to the base and then throw it over the boat. That attracts minnows and when minnows are around, that attracts your game fish.”
Morton said another trick is to sink two clumps of Christmas trees about eight feet apart. That way the minnows will swim back and forth between the reefs and it allows for good fishing in between.
“And the trees are biodegradable so they will go down to nothing in about three years,” said Morton.
By producing acidic mulch and great fishing, Christmas trees can help spread holiday cheer throughout the year.