[SEMCO] unsold christmas trees

[gberman at whoi.edu]

Hi all,

I just wanted to provide a quick professional comment on Mr. Bartley?s  
generous offer of surplus cut trees for erosion control (I have no  
professional opinion about the bird habitat or goat food uses).  While  
permitted (or even encouraged) as recently as the mid-1990s, the use  
of cut trees has been shown to be ineffective for longer term dune  
erosion control.  Discarded Christmas trees may accumulate wind-blown  
sand and speed volume recovery for a dune system, however there are no  
live roots (which form during more natural dune recovery) to help bind  
the soils and discarded trees may actually inhibit growth of live  
vegetation.  Also, these dune systems are a dynamic place?the newly  
deposited sand that covered the trees will likely be eroded away by  
another storm system.  The problem is when waves reach the trees,  
large portions of the dune are typically removed?more than if there  
were no trees.

Also please note that any activity that takes place in a coastal dune  
would need approval by your local conservation commission.  Most state  
and local agencies today agree that installing sand fence and/or  
planting live vegetation (factsheets available at CZM, WHSG, and CCCE  
websites) works far better than using Christmas trees.  This is a  
shame as Mr. Bartley?s goal of beneficial reuse of discarded materials  
is certainly worthwhile, as is preservation of our natural resource  
areas.



-Greg Berman
_________________________________________________________________________
Coastal Processes Specialist
Woods Hole Sea Grant  |  Cape Cod Cooperative Extension
gberman at whoi.edu  |  gberman at barnstablecounty.org
508-289-3046  |  193 Oyster Pond Road, MS #2, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1525
_________________________________________________________________________




Quoting Mark Bartley <mbartley at capeabilities.org>:

> Hello, we had a great year and sold more cut trees than ever-
> BUT- we have a whole bunch left and rather than burn them we would  
> like to make them available-
> They could be used for erosion control in dune areas, or habitats  
> for birds or food for goats-
> Please contract me if interested, thank you
> (the time frame is until February 2017)
>
> T Mark Bartley
> Production Manager/Job Creator
> Cape Abilities Farm
> 458 Rt 6A Dennis Ma
> mbartley at capeabilities.org
>
> Cape  Abilities
> Serving Individuals with disabilities on Cape Cod since 1968
> 458 Main St., Dennis,  MA 02638
> Phone: 508-385-2538
> www.capeabilities.org<http://www.capeabilities.org/>
>
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