Properly disposing of Christmas trees with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife
BOWLING GREEN, KY.- Since the 1980s, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife have been recycling Christmas trees and creating habitats for fish. They are still recycling live Christmas trees today to ensure that fish and other wildlife have all the resources they need to survive.
Marcy Anderson, the program coordinator at Kentucky Fish and Wildlife shares why they began recycling trees and the importance of recycling trees. Anderson says, “When we first have a lake come into creation, it’s got a lot of structure that fish love and crave, but over time, those trees break down and we’re left with no habitat, and the Christmas trees provide what those fish need.”
According to experts if a tree is not properly disposed of or recycled it can negatively impact the environment. We learned from the owner of Compost Bowling Green, Charlie O’Connell the dangers of not properly getting rid of your Christmas tree. He says, “When these items and these materials go into the landfill, they cause harm to our environment through the production of methane gas. If we take those trees and put them in the landfill, we’re losing opportunities to have other environmental benefits. ”
Not only does this benefit humans and the earth, it also helps the animals that will use the trees as their new habitat.
“It provides a really good fish habitat. We see a lot of increases in fish usage in those areas once trees go into the lake, so it’s a great way to keep trees from going into the landfills, and it helps reduce the amount of garbage basically going into a landfill when it’s something that can easily be used”
If you are interested in donating your live tree to wildlife in need visit https://fw.ky.gov/News/Pages/Recycle-your-Christmas-trees-to-provide-fish-habitat.aspx.
