TULSA, Okla. — Many families toy with the idea of how to get rid of their Christmas trees and some organizations in Green Country are making that effort easy.
Some of the methods include returning the tree to Mother Nature. But Pier 51 General Manager Sean Adair said there are right and wrong ways to sink your Christmas tree in the lake.
"I don’t like it. I know why guys do it. I mean we have some of the best-baited holes on some of our smaller docks, it’s great. But it’s for a safety concern for me that I’m more worried about it," said Adair.
Pier 51 is a marina housed inside of the Keystone State Park.
He said the trees, which people hang off his docks cause issues when he needs to make repairs.
"I dive beneath these docks with scuba gear running equipment," said Adair. "I’ve been hooked by broken-off hooks in those trees and I’ve been wrapped up in them. And it’s dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing as a diver it can be very intimidating. People can lose their lives like that.
That’s where the Tulsa District Army Corps of Engineers comes in. In early January they’re allowing people to donate their real Christmas trees to become natural habitats in some of our Oklahoma lakes.
This will ensure the trees go to the right spots in the lake.
"All the little crappie, perch everything, gets up around those and they just hide inside there and they just stay. It definitely works," said Adair.
The City of Tulsa also offers ways to get rid of your Christmas trees. The city said you can not throw trees in city waterways but they have options that will make it easy to remove your tree.
"When it comes to Christmas trees, through the month of January we will be accepting, live and artificial Christmas trees at the curb. Live trees need to be cut into four-foot sections or less and they can have decorations on them, that’s fine," said Josh Nole with the refuse and recycling system in Tulsa.
He said people can also bring them to the city’s mulching site at 2100 N. 145th East Ave.
However, he said it’s only for real trees without decorations, saying an artificial tree doesn’t make the best mulch.
The tree must also be free of decorations.
"When you take your tree to the mulch site, we will grind it up either in fine grind or coarse grind, and anybody regardless of your residency, you can come and pick up mulch for free," said Nole.
The mulch site is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day except Wednesday.
Whichever option you choose, it’s important to follow the rules.
In its Facebook post about the tree donation, the Army Corps of Engineers said trees painted or sprayed with chemicals shouldn’t be used as habitats.
If you think your tree was sprayed, you can always call the place where you bought it and ask or use another option to be safe.
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