Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

I’ve always loved a real Christmas tree but struggled with the idea of cutting down trees just to decorate them inside my home for a few weeks a year. Trees are living things and to grow them just to cut them for my enjoyment is something I had trouble reconciling within myself. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there are approximately 25-30 million real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every year. That’s a lot of trees.

On the other hand, artificial trees are plastic, usually made in China, and when you include shipping, they come with a hefty environmental cost. For a few years our family bought potted Christmas trees as a solution, but we soon ran out of places to plant them. It’s not like you can just show up at a public park and plop them into the ground wherever you’d like. In the end, we bought an artificial tree, thinking that at least it was reusable.

Was that the right environmental decision? I decided to look a little deeper.

It turns out, even though they are cut down, live trees are more sustainable. There are close to 350 million real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the U.S. alone, all planted by farmers. Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states.

Real trees for Christmas does mean cutting down a living tree. However, for every tree harvested, one to three seedlings are planted. Depending on the tree, it can take as little as four years or as many 15 years for that tree to grow large enough to be harvested. All that time it is growing, cleaning the air and providing habitat and other ecological benefits.

After Christmas when the trees come down, they continue to help the environment in a myriad of ways. In cities like mine, Christmas trees get put by the curb for pickup and are turned into mulch. But there are other creative recycling programs for Christmas trees as well. From Montana to Texas and in South Carolina and where I live in Kentucky, Christmas trees are helping to remedy other ecosystem challenges.

Lakes all over the country are getting help from post-holiday tree cleanup. Because of development, shoreline erosion and stormwater runoff negatively impact lakes and streams. Lakes have had to contend with sediment buildup, which blocks sunlight and smothers plants in the water. Fish rely on this vegetation for habitat.

This is where recycled Christmas trees come in. State departments of Fish and Wildlife anchor Christmas trees to cinder blocks and drop them into lakes where they break down naturally. But first, they create a reef for aquatic life, providing a surface for algae and insects as well as a protective spawning area for fish. Some states will even provide coordinates to anglers for where they’ve dropped Christmas trees because they make a prime fishing spot.

In coastal regions, recycled Christmas trees also help with dune restorations. There, trees are placed at the toe of a frontal dune, providing a natural biodegradable barrier. The trees trap windblown sand, helping dunes stabilize against erosion while protecting coastlines from storms. They also help dune grasses take root, which further secures the sand.

For those of us who love to decorate with a live Christmas tree, we can do so with a clearer conscience. It’s not such a wasteful indulgence after all. Real Christmas trees support local growers, clean the air for years and then, after the ornaments are packed away, they continue to do important environmental work beneath the surface of a lake or along a vulnerable shoreline. When you’re ready to take down your holiday decorations, reach out to your state Fish and Wildlife Service to see how they can use your Christmas tree to support local ecosystems.