Scientists from the university continue to donate Christmas trees to restore and protect damaged wetlands despite the program’s eight years of budgetary setbacks.

The collection, which started after Christmas and will end after Mardi Gras, is headed by Dr. Rob Moreau of the Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station. According to Moreau, the program runs every year and has deployed about 35,000 trees since 1995.

“We used to deploy thousands of trees each year in the early years,” said Moreau. Moreau also stated that the program was much bigger in the past with assistance from state grants and National Guard helicopter drops. The trees were deployed along with marsh grasses until assistance ended in 2008. Now, 15 to 20 student volunteers provide the labor, but they are no longer able to plant marsh grasses.

“We see the impact in terms of land built,” said Moreau in regards to how he measured the success of the program. “I think early on when we were doing more trees, we built something like eight to 10 acres of land in the ‘prairie’ area of Manchac.” According to Moreau, the intent had been to “protect shorelines, build up land and to keep trees out of landfills.”

Moreau and his colleague Dr. Gary Shaffer changed the strategy for last year and is continuing it this year. According to Moreau, they have a five-year permit from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to place the trees in ditches created by loggers. Their goal is to see if they will “one day fill the ditches.” Shaffer and his lab are developing a method for measuring its success. Moreau and the volunteer team plan on deploying the trees on March 2 and 4. They will access ditches via the research center’s pontoon boat.

Manager of Grounds, Landscape and Recycling Carlos Doolittle runs a drop-off site at the Sustainability Center. The on-campus site opened on January 5 and runs until the end of the month. It is open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Friday.

“The recycling of the Christmas trees is a natural fit for the recycling program that operates out of the sustainability center,” said Doolittle who became involved in the program last year. 

As of January 14, the Sustainability Center collected 24 trees for the 2015 to 2016 holiday season.

Visit the Southeastern website to see how you can donate and help the cause of Turtle Cove.