What to do with the Christmas Tree

Subject: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Rob 'Mad Jock' Wright
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 12:06 PM

Yes it is that time of year when the decorations come down and the tree needs to be disposed of. But what to do with it?
The Fife Coast and Countryside Trust has come up with a great idea.... They use the old trees to help stabilise sandunes which are threatened by erosion.
All you do is take your tree to a collection point and then on a set day the trees are transportated to the dunes and then volunteer s use them to fill in at the eroded sites. It is a win win situation. So if you live near StAndrews or fancy a drive drop your tree at the compound near West Sands Cafe before Jan 10.
Volunteer s shift them on January 11th

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 01:03 PM

Thats what we do at Widemouth Bay in Cornwall, Rob, the idea being to stop the dunes from blowing across the main coast road (and to reduce dune erosion).

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 01:11 PM

Here they are collected by the local wildlife service..many are used for fodder for deer, some go to shelters for birds, some go on the Dunes and many are shredded and spread on flower beds that require acidic soil. We put our in the garden and hang various kinds of bird food on it, then it is cut up and is spread under the Rhodos. Not Much Waste.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 01:14 PM

In Massachusetts, a local animal-husbandry professional
solicits people to bring their trees to his farm
to feed all of his goats for the winter.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 01:22 PM

Legend has it that one Christmas morning when Santa was just putting his feet up for a cup of tea and a well earned rest, there was a knock at the door. Rather annoyed, Santa put down his tea cup and shuffled wearily to the door. It was one of his team of fairies that delivered Christmas trees with a free over one shoulder.

"I couldn't deliver this one, Santa" she said. "What do you want me to do with it?"

and from that day on, there has been a fairy on top of every Christmas tree.

:D tG

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: EBarnacle
Date: 08 Jan 20 - 01:25 PM

In New Jersey, the trees are being used as the substructure for new dunes to stabilize the shoreline.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Rob 'Mad Jock' Wright
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 10:51 AM

Since posting the first comment on this thread it has been great to find out that other agencies in other areas are trying the same idea. Tends to mean that it is a good idea and one that works.
More people need to support it so anything you Mudcatters can do to spread the word would be helpful.

There is also the same procedure used to help stabilise the sand dunes on the Ayrshire Coast.
Let's get behind this and make a difference.??

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: BobL
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 03:18 AM

I'm experimenting with using them for morris sticks: chop off branches, de-bark and smooth down. The results are beautifully straight, but tapered with light and heavy ends. Stick dancing with a vengeance!

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 04:38 AM

Is this a song?

I suppose it could be

What shall we do with a Christmas Tree-ee x3
On a Twelfth Day morning

Put it on a sand dune, keep it stable* x3

Put it through the shredder, spread it on the garden

Peel off the bark and bash each other

Feed the deer, they're always hungry
On a Twelfth Day morning

* They use them on the dunes at Formby too. Look very sad with brown needles, but it must work.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 05:18 PM

> from that day on, there has been a fairy on top of every Christmas tree.

Tim Brooks has a much fuller version of that story.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 04:31 AM

My sister (lives up in Perthshire) always has a ridiculously enormous tree so huge (about 3 metres tall) that her two daughters have to help her put it up. One year it fell over with a crash during the night and scared her silly.

Thanks for this thread - I must ask her if there are similar arrangements around the Dundee/Perth area for ecologically sound disposal. She would definitely be interested, as she likes to help the environment.

(whispers timidly) We have a 2ft high plastic tree, had it for years...

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 08:09 AM

The trouble with sea defences, in general, is that often by protecting your bit of coast, you may change the wave patterns so that somebody else's property gets destroyed further down the coast.

DC

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 10:36 AM

I stopped getting trees for the house when 1) I no longer had a truck to transport it and 2) I seemed to be allergic to the trees themselves. But I would drag it to the back of the back yard (it's a long narrow pie-shaped yard) and let the needles dry and fall off and are raked into the compost, then cut off the limbs and run them through a small electric chipper. The bole was too big for that and was cut in a couple of pieces and tossed over the back fence into the part of my yard above the creek where it can break down at it's own pace.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 11:38 AM

We dig up a conifer sapling that's being shaded by bigger trees, plant it in a large pot, use it for a Christmas tree, and then transplant it to a new and sunnier location.

Previous years' Christmas trees are major landscape features on our property.

Subject: RE: What to do with the Christmas Tree
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Jan 20 - 04:55 PM

There are several Christmas trees plated in my acre. The theory was that if you cut out the leader another would grow in a couple of years to replace it. I don't bother any more, either.