This text is taken from the Courrier de la Planète of January 10, 2023. To subscribe, click here.
After having embalmed and illuminated homes for a few days, hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees will take the sad road to the streets this week, where their brief reign will end.
Approximately 1.7 million Christmas trees are cut each year in Quebec, 98% of which are exported. Only 800,000 trees are sold in Quebec and Canada. But a good number of these kings of the forest are enjoying a second life thanks to the municipal collections that are starting all over Quebec this week and making it possible to extend their useful life by transforming them into chips, compost or temporary windbreaks. The City of Montreal recovered the equivalent of 198.5 tonnes of Christmas trees last year (2022) and 286 tonnes in 2021 for recycling and revaluation purposes
But in towns without such services, trees abandoned by the roadside risk ending up in landfills, where they take years to decompose.
A third ecological option is available to prolong the too short career of these softwoods, which take 7 to 8 years to reach the desired size before going to shine in the cottages.
Refuge
Several cities and environmental organizations, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada, suggest that citizens leave trees, stripped of their decorations, in a corner of their garden, standing, lying or leaning against a fence, to serve as a refuge for birds and other small animals in the winter.
Planted near bird feeders, the tree can be adorned with cocottes covered in suet or peanut butter to help feed birds or small animals in the depths of winter. The Quebec Christmas Tree Producers Association also suggests using cut branches as natural mulch to protect flowerbeds or fragile plants that are easily damaged by ice or winter frost when the snow is lacking.
Once stripped of their green thorns in the spring, fir trees can still be useful. Their cut branches lying on the ground can serve as a habitat for various insects or batrachians, before slowly decomposing, as in the forest, to enrich the humus for the surrounding plants. In short, enough to offer a longer life to these stars of a few evenings.