Southeastern to again collect discarded Christmas trees to enhance wetlands
Monday, December 20, 2021
by: Tonya Lowentritt
SAVING THE WETLANDS ONE DISCARDED TREE AT A TIME – A Southeastern Louisiana University student helps deploy discarded Christmas trees to help restore Louisiana wetlands. This is the 27th straight year Southeastern has conducted its recycled tree program.
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University is again asking area citizens to
give the environment a gift after Christmas. Despite a difficult year of Hurricane
Ida and the on-going pandemic, Turtle Cove and its partners will again provide Christmas
Tree Recycling. Discarded Christmas trees can be dropped off and used for wetland
restoration rather than throwing them out with the trash.
“We can put the old Christmas trees to work in our area marshland while also
reducing the waste stream going into landfills,” said Rob Moreau, manager of Southeastern’s
Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station located on Pass Manchac between Lakes Pontchartrain
and Maurepas.
Although grant funding from the state for Christmas tree recycling in many areas
ended years ago, local partners stepped up to keep the project going. This marks the
27th straight year Southeastern has conducted its recycled tree program. Moreau depends
on volunteers and students to deploy the trees in the Manchac wetlands, and those
groups were in short supply last year due to the pandemic. Therefore, he relied more
on the Turtle Cove staff, mainly graduate students, to deploy the trees in various
areas of the Manchac Swamp. Approximately 40,000 trees have been deployed through
the Southeastern program in the past 26 years.
Southeastern scientists and volunteers at Turtle Cove use the discarded trees
to help build up marshland in areas that have been impacted by erosion and other factors,
said Moreau.
Moreau explained that the trees will be used in a variety of ways, creating new
habitats for wildlife and, of course, helping to control erosion along various shorelines,
most recently occurring on Galva Canal and in areas around the research station itself
on Pass Manchac and the boatshed/parking lot area at Galva Canal.
This practice also provides hands-on environmental education opportunities for
students and other volunteers who help with the project.
Collaborating in the project for the seventh consecutive year is the Southeastern
Sustainability Center on North Oak Street, which will serve as a drop-off point for
area residents to leave their used Christmas trees. Other primary partners include
the city of Hammond and Middendorf’s Restaurant in Manchac. Several local tree farms
and other businesses usually jump in on the action as well in terms of providing left
over trees.
Trees can be dropped off beginning Jan. 4 through Mardi Gras from 7 a.m. to 3
p.m. at the Hammond Maintenance facility, located at 18104 Hwy. 190 next to Piggly
Wiggly Supermarket. Trees should be dropped off using the gate on Falcon Drive next
to Piggly Wiggly. The Southeastern Sustainability Center, located at 2101 North Oak
Street, will collect trees beginning Jan. 10 through the end of the month from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 8 to 10 a.m. on Friday. Moreau said a Turtle
Cove trailer drop off site will also be maintained at Middendorf’s Restaurant beginning
Friday, Jan 7, so customers going there can also drop off trees.
“The city of Hammond will again provide transport of collected trees to the Turtle
Cove Galva Canal parking lot area in Manchac, where they will be stored until they
are deployed in the marshes in the spring,” Moreau said. “Small groups of students
and volunteers will socially distance and wear masks to help deploy the trees, unless
of course the pandemic conditions dictate otherwise.”
No flocked trees will be accepted, and all trees should be stripped of any ornaments,
lights, tinsel, stands, nails and screws, etc.
“This greatly helps our efforts to get the trees quickly deployed,” Moreau said.
For more information, contact Moreau at rmoreau@southeastern.edu or visit the website at www.southeastern.edu/turtlecove.
Donations to help support the activity can be sent by check payable to Southeastern
Foundation – c/o Turtle Cove and mailed to Southeastern Box 10585, Hammond, LA 70402
or can be made by credit card through the Turtle Cove web site and under the “donations”
link.