Conservationists announce tips to give your Christmas Tree a renewed purpose

Garden Girl Owner Ariel Cote attends to her Christmas tree in its new home in her front yard. Cote’s family started repurposing their Christmas tree last year when yard waste pickups were unavailable. (David Prisciak/CTV News)

The Nature Conversancy of Canada recently released recommendations on how to reuse and repurpose Christmas trees that are helpful to local wildlife, insects, and your garden.

“It all comes down to keeping them out of the landfill,” said Andrew Holland, spokesperson for The Nature Conversancy of Canada. “It’s one of our small acts of conservation.”

There are many ways to ensure your old Christmas tree is properly recycled including leaving it in your yard during the winter.

“By throwing it out in the backyard between now and Mother’s Day,” he said. “You can provide warmth and shelter for overwintering birds that try to hack our tough winter climate.”

Ariel Cote, owner of the gardening shop Garden Girl, has repurposed her family’s tree.

“We found that we didn’t really have a place to put the tree,” she said about the lack of options last year for properly disposing of it. “So, we thought let’s just it leave it outside till spring and see what happens, and the birds were loving it.”

Cote says doing so allows the tree to be a gift that keeps on giving, as she and her two sons enjoy watching the bird take advantage of the new habitat.

“We sit inside and watch the birds come and go and flutter around,” she said. “The boys are really enjoying it, and the chickadees are definitely loving it, they’ve been really cute to watch.”

Cote said the tree will be a nice addition to the space for the winter, and will continue to look good throughout the season.

“It dries up a little bit, but it actually stays fairly green,” she said. “Which is nice for winter, and it does stay for quite a long time.”

Once spring rolls around, Holland said they will properly dispose of the tree.

“Well, it can’t stay in the snowbank forever,” she said. “Once the snow is gone, we’ll take it to the yard waste depot, once it opens up and it turns into compost, which is great.”

Holland said the uses for Christmas trees after the holidays differs across the country. In his home New Brunswick, hundreds of them are stacked on the Atlantic shores to combat soil erosion.

“So, one way to try and mitigate some of that erosion is using these Christmas trees, and hundreds upon hundreds of them are dumped over the bank and placed carefully along the coastline.”

Holland understands not everyone has the space for repurposing their Christmas tree, but hopes that everyone will understand the main point of the announcement.