Keeping your Christmas tree in the backyard is good for environment: Nature Conservancy of Canada

CALGARY -

For those looking to find a second act for your Christmas tree, consider just leaving it in the backyard.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada suggests letting the urban wildlife that is part of everyone's garden and backyard do the recycling themselves, instead of having the city haul it away.

Leaving a tree in the backyard can provide important habitat for bird populations during the winter months, especially on cold nights and during storms, according to the NCC's national conservation science manager, Samantha Knight.

The conservancy calls this practice a small act of conservation.

The process starts with location: simply prop it against another tree, the fence or else lay it in the garden.

You can even redecorate it with treats to attract wildlife, like peanut butter-filled pine cones,  strings of peanuts, or suet for birds to chew on at the same time they take shelter in the tree.

“Evergreens offer a safe place for birds to rest while they visit your feeder,” said Knight. “Another benefit is that if you leave the tree in your garden over the summer, it will continue to provide habitat for wildlife and improve your soil as it decomposes.”

By spring, the tree will have lost its needles. At that point, you can cut the branches and add them to your garden, then lay the trunk of the tree in the soil but not on top of any flowers.

Leaving a tree in the backyard can provide important habitat for bird populations during the winter months, especially on cold nights and during storms.

Branches and trunk provide habitat, shelter wildflowers, hold moisture and enhance soil. Frogs may seek shelter under the log, and insects, like carpenter bees, may burrow into the wood.

“By fall, the branches and trunk will begin to decompose and turn into soil,” said Knight. “Many of our Christmas trees, particularly spruce and balsam fir, have very low rot resistance and break down quickly when exposed to the elements. The more contact the cut branches and trunk have with the ground, the quicker it will decompose. Drilling holes in the tree trunk will speed up that process."