With the holiday season drawing to a close, those with natural Christmas trees may be wondering what they can do with the tree once the decorations come down.  

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has a suggestion for those with real Christmas trees: put it into the backyard. 

Samantha Knight is a national conservation science manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada. She explained that leaving the tree in the backyard over the rest of the winter can provide a number of benefits, as it can act as a habitat for bird populations, particularly at night, and during storms.  

“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.” 

In the spring, the tree will likely have lost most of the needles, and the NCC recommends cutting the tree branches, laying them where spring flowers start to emerge in the garden, and then placing the trunk on the soil. Knight added the branches and trunk can provide habitat, shelter wildflowers, hold moisture and help build the soil by doing what happens with dead trees and branches in a forest.  

“By fall, the branches and trunk will begin to decompose and turn into soil,” Knight continued. “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.” 

In addition to using the tree as a habitat for backyard wildlife, many municipalities have drop-off or pick-up services for Christmas trees. Often, these trees are then chipped up and composted or used as trail bedding.