Christmas trees, like the one above, are collected to be distributed  into the Louisiana wetlands. Trees cleared of  all decorations can be brought to the university’s  Sustainability Center or the Middendorf’s restaurant in Manchac. Sarah Hess/The Lion's Roar

The university’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station in Manchac has worked for over two decades to help restore wetlands by recycling Christmas trees. 

The university’s Sustainability Center and Middendorf’s restaurant in Manchac have partnered with the research station to work as the official drop-off sites for used Christmas trees. 

The trees will be placed throughout the Manchac swamp in an effort to increase wetland restoration and protect shorelines erosion, a severe issue found in the wetlands of Louisiana. According to Scientific American, “a football field sized area of land is being washed away every hour.” 

This use of the trees gives them another application besides a decoration for one month out of the year. 

“We can put the old Christmas trees to work in our area marshland while also reducing the waste stream going into landfills,” said Robert Moreau, director of university’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station.

The wetlands restoration projects efforts over the two decades since its start in 1993 has been able to recycle over 36,000 trees into the swamps of Louisiana. The areas where the trees have been placed in the past include the Pass Manchac, Jones Island and areas of Lake Pontchartrain.  

The trees collected this year are scheduled to be placed in the wetlands this March. These trees will focus on new areas of the wetlands where there is an old source of saltwater intrusion. Moreau explains how he hopes the trees will be able to restore lands that were damaged by man during logging. 

“The hope is that these Christmas trees can help capture sediments and help build up vegetation so that we can actually close in these logging ditches,” Moreau said, “They are something that’s been left behind from the logging days and probably would never fill in otherwise.”

The Sustainability Center will be collecting trees throughout the month on Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Fridays from 8 to 10 a.m. 

The trees must have been removed of all decorations and flocked trees will not be accepted.