Your discarded Christmas tree could be a building block in coastal restoration.  Southeastern Louisiana University’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station manager Dr. Rob Moreau says using the trees to enhance wetlands has more benefits than putting them into a landfill.

“They help to build habitat in the wetlands and the marsh areas.  They help to prevent erosion from wave action and things like that,” said Moreau.

Moreau depends on volunteers and students to deploy the trees in the Pass Manchac wetlands between lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas.

“Christmas trees will help collect sediments that are in the water.  Eventually, you build up some land with those Christmas trees as the base,” said Moreau.

Moreau says the tree recycling program has become a post-holiday tradition in the time since it was first established.

“We’ve been recycling Christmas trees from around the Tangipahoa Parish area for about the past 25 years.  We’ve recycled about 40,000 Christmas trees over that time,” said Moreau.

For more info on drop off times and locations, go to southeastern.edu/turtlecove.

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