In our part of the world, the local authorities have been picking up "real" Christmas trees each year in early January to be carted off to the receding Louisiana wetlands and placed starategically to shore up and reclaim the land.

This is an ecologically excellent use of recycled vegetatative matter, and has been going on since well before Katrina. Of course, after the catasrophic storms of the last few years, there's that much more reason to act on behalf of the endangered wetlands, and there's also that much more widespread public awaress of the tree-recycling effort and its purpose.

For those who fret that the seasonal real-tree business might somehow contribute to deforestration, read the article that Raptor linked in the opening post. Christmas trees are grown on tree farms; they're not harvested from the wild.