REAL TREES 4 Kids!

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Recycle

What happens to a REAL TREE after the holiday season? Well, take your pick. Real Trees have many uses when the decorations are down!

Here are some examples of ways Real Trees are recycled!

Erosion Control

Recycled trees help keep protect sand dunes and lake and river shorelines from losing too much to erosion.

Back to the Earth

Recycled trees are often made into mulch. Mulch is used as fertilizer for other plants and trees.

Fish Habitat

In some places, recycled REAL TREES are submerged in ponds and lakes to create new habitats for the fish living there.

Fuel Chips

Many REAL TREE operations and communities use machines to recycle REAL TREES into chips used for fuel.

Animal Habitats

This raccoon is sitting in a live tree, however recycled trees can also be used to create a habitat for small animals!

Those are pretty creative ideas! Can you think of other ways that you could recycle a Real Tree? How are REAL TREES recycled in your community?

If you have a unique way to recycle REAL TREES after the holiday season and you'd like to share it with other REAL TREES 4 Kids! visitors, click here and tell us all about it!

Here are some ideas we've received!!!

To recycle our Christmas Tree we have an After Christmas Party where we take our tree outside and redecorate it for the outside critters. We use strings of popcorn and cranberries and also peanut butter bagels rolled in bird seed. Then we watch the critters have a Christmas Party of their own.

The S. Family in Florida

We also put our tree out by our bird feeder and decorate it with pine cone birdseed ornaments and birdseed ornaments made out of bread.

Another way we recycle our tree ... After the tree dries out, we run our hand along the branches and let the needles drop into a cardboard shoebox. Then, the needles are put into small "envelopes " or pockets made out of muslin or thin cotton. Then, "envelope" is sewn shut and put into drawers as a sachet. Every so often I will "crush" the sachet in my hands to re-release the fragrance of our tree.

The H. Family