SEASIDE — When January rolls around, it’s typically the end of the road for Christmas trees. The lights come off, and once-festive pines find new homes sidled up next to trash bins.
This season, the Necanicum Watershed Council is hoping to give those trees a second life.
Trees
Advocates give Christmas trees a second life.
On Saturday, the nonprofit is collecting clean Christmas trees at its office in Seaside for habitat restoration work on the main stem of the Necanicum River.
“It’s actually a pretty popular project across Oregon, because it’s a great way to get your used Christmas trees out of the dump and into the stream where it offers nutrients,” said Sarah Walker, the Necanicum Watershed Council’s operations director.
It’s not the first time something like this has happened on the North Coast. In years past, the Necanicum Watershed Council and other organizations like the North Coast Watershed Association and North Coast Land Conservancy have put on similar programs. But a new partnership is helping the watershed council take on that work in a bigger way.
Last year, the nonprofit began collecting Christmas tree donations from the Home Depot, helping to up the amount of materials available for habitat restoration. Walker said the nonprofit is working with a small grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to place those trees and new ones collected this year in local streams.
It’s not an overnight process — in fact, the roughly 170 trees collected last year are still sitting around on dry land.
“A lot of these trees come from tree farms, and so sometimes they use different fertilizers, and then sometimes they use different sprays on them,” said Hugh Ahnatook, the nonprofit’s tribal lands and waters steward. “And to have them sit out for a year alleviates a lot of those chemicals and contaminations that we don’t want to put in the river.”
The watershed council anticipates placing the first round of trees at a habitat restoration site later in the spring. Since the trees are so small, they’ll create rafts by tying five or six of them together and anchor those rafts in the river. Then, toward the end of the summer, they’ll go back and untie the rafts that haven’t already naturally come apart.
Woody debris placements in rivers and streams can help provide shade and protection for salmon and create pockets of calmer water for fish to rest by redirecting water flow. They can also add important nutrients to the ecosystem.
“Not only does it provide shade for the juvenile salmon, but … on a microbiology level, it also produces food because of the insect larvae and the other little organisms that live in that protective habitat of the little Christmas tree,” Ahnatook said. “So it helps nourish the young salmon.”
Between donations from Home Depot and people in the community, the watershed council is hoping to receive 200 or so additional trees this year for future habitat work. The project is about more than ecology, though.
Last year, the Necanicum Watershed Council formalized a partnership with the Chinook Indian Nation through a first-of-its kind memorandum of agreement. The agreement outlines a co-stewardship model between the two groups. Ahnatook, whose role includes strengthening partnerships with the tribes, said members of the Chinook Indian Nation will be leading the project at the Necanicum River site in the spring.
“The land here is unceded land of the Chinook Indian Nation, and to be able to have tribal members come out and help facilitate some of the restoration work that we’re all working on together is really important,” Ahnatook said, emphasizing the cultural significance of salmon to the tribes.
The project also represents a connection with the broader community.
“For the local community here to be able to give back to the Necanicum and for some folks that might not typically be going out and doing a restoration day, this is a really easy way to get engaged in giving back to the watershed,” Walker said.
The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on N. Holladay Drive.