The Southern Nye County Extension Master Gardener site is accepting live-cut Christmas trees for its recycling program through Jan. 20.
Master Gardener Coordinator Heather Freeman said residents can drop their old tree off at the extension’s office, 1651 E. Calvada Blvd., with a few stipulations.
“All decorations, including tinsel, must be removed and artificial trees will not be accepted,” she said. “We’re collecting them now, and this year, as in the past it’s always been Pahrump’s Layton Tree Service working under the sponsorship of Valley Electric Association.”
Last year, more than 85 Christmas trees were donated, she said, and were chipped into wooden bits.
“The trees will be chipped into mulch that we use around here in the desert demonstration garden to mulch over the top of the ground,” Freeman said. “It protects the root balls from heat and it conserves water so that less water is needed to be applied and eventually over time, it does break down and add nutrition compost to the soil, so it’s great for the environment and it keeps all those trees out of the landfill.”
Livestock owners can also benefit from the trees, she said.
“I know of a couple of goat owners that will take the very nice fresh ones because goats enjoy snacking on the needles,” she said. “I don’t think they eat the entire trunk, so to any of the goat owners that would like to bring the trunks over we can shoot those through the wood chipper as long as they bring them by Jan. 20.”
Trees will be accepted 24 hours a day at the center.
“It’s just inside the little wooden gate down at the south end of the parking lot,” she said. “They might want to prefer daylight hours for safety purposes. There’s a sign down at the end of the parking lot for a place for people to stack them up against the chain-link fence. We want to stress that all of the decorations and tinsel be removed before dropping them off.”
For additional information call 775-727-5532, ext. 2 or email at southnyemgcunr.edu.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes.