A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at the beach. It was a nice cool day as I walked along the shoreline. The water was beautiful, and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day. I did have one question, though. What are all these Christmas trees doing on the beach? Mixed in with the white sand were Christmas trees partially covered by the sand.
They have been putting recycled Christmas Trees on the beaches of North Carolina for more than 70 years, according to an article on wbtw news. There is a great reason for this…it is a great way to combat beach erosion.
Here is what a local park ranger said about this process…
“The sand starts collecting around the trees, it slowly starts to build up. Once that happens, other kinds of plants that normally stabilize the dune start to fill in things like sea oats and things like that,” park ranger Benjamin Fleming said. “Once that happens, it kind of helps build the beach up further and further out, protecting the beach as a whole.”
“We really need the trees to help with erosion control. We are still trying to rebuild dunes we lost during Florence,” Fleming said about the 2018 hurricane.”
Here is a Youtube video about one of the tree events in NC