The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Don’t toss your tree just yet
“If you leave the tree in your garden over the summer, it will continue to provide habitat for wildlife and improve your soil as it decomposes.” Dan Kraus Conservation biologist, Nature Conservancy of Canada
Getting ready to give that needle-shedding Christmas tree the heave-ho for a notso-prestigious landing at the curb?
Ho Ho Hold on a minute. The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) suggests a sober second thought and to consider putting the tree in the backyard instead.
“Evergreens offer a safe place for birds to rest while they visit your feeder,” Dan Kraus, NCC'S conservation biologist, said in a release.
Kraus and the NCC, a notfor-profit, private land conservation group, says leaving the former gift-protecting tree in your backyard over the winter can provide gifts and benefits for backyard wildlife.
The tree can provide important habitat for bird populations during the winter months, especially on cold nights and during storms.
The first step in letting nature help you recycle your Christmas tree is to put it anywhere in the backyard, the NCC suggests.
Prop it up near another tree, against a fence or lay it in your garden.
You can even get the family involved by redecorating it with pine cones filled with peanut butter, strings of peanuts and suet for birds to enjoy. These delicious decorations will provide food for birds while they find shelter in the tree.
“Another benefit is that if you leave the tree in your garden over the summer, it will continue to provide habitat for wildlife and improve your soil as it decomposes,” Kraus said.
By spring, the tree will have lost most of its needles, resembling a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The homeowner could then cut the tree branches, lay them where spring flowers are starting to emerge in the garden and place the trunk on soil, but not on top of the flowers.
BACKYARD ECOSYSTEMS
Kraus says the tree branches and trunk can provide habitat, shelter wildflowers, hold moisture and help build the soil, mimicking what happens with dead trees and branches in a forest.
Toads will seek shelter under the log, and insects, including pollinators such as carpenter bees, will burrow into the wood.
“By fall, the branches and trunk will begin to decompose and turn into soil,” Kraus said. “Many of our Christmas trees, particularly spruce and balsam fir, have very low rot resistance and break down quickly when exposed to the elements. The more contact the cut branches and trunk have with the ground, the quicker it will decompose. Drilling holes in the tree trunk will speed up that process.”
Kraus said backyards are ecosystems of their own and provide an opportunity to learn about forest ecology.
By leaving the Christmas tree in our backyard, residents can understand its life cycle and observe its impact on backyard biodiversity, he said.
There are other uses for Christmas trees, too. Some municipalities have drop-off sites where trees are chipped up and composted or used as trail bedding.
Some communities place the Christmas trees on shores to help prevent coastal erosion. And some pulp and paper companies collect and burn them for a fuel alternative.