Start the new year with a green idea: Recycle your Christmas tree

Brookings, S.D. – The real Christmas trees that added special magic to this year’s holiday season can now find a second purpose by recycling, says SDSU Extension Forestry Specialist John Ball during a recent iGrow Radio Network Interview.

Ball says the easiest second use for real Christmas tree is as a bird feeder, stuck in a snow bank.

“Hang bird feed on them, because it makes a wonderful perch, provides a little hiding cover, which birds like,” he said. “The birds will find it and utilize it for the rest of the winter, because they do like a little cover when they are out there feeding.”

He says another option for repurposing Christmas trees is to use them as mulch. An option many South Dakota communities embrace by collecting used trees and grinding them up for compost.

“Evergreens are wonderful because one of our problems in our soils in South Dakota is they tend to be a little on the alkaline side, and the pine, spruce and firs we use will be a little on the acidic side – which is going to be very beneficial,” Ball said. “There is nothing better than going out and putting a pine or even a little spruce mulch around your trees.”

These trees may also be bundled and dropped into lakes as artificial reefs for fish habitat. To learn more about this topic, and listen to the iGrow Radio Network interview with John Ball, visit iGrow.org.

This news release was provided by South Dakota State Extension.