DAYTON — Christmas has come and gone. As people begin to take down their live Christmas trees, one group of Ohio parks is asking that people recycle them by sinking them.

What You Need To Know

  • Five Rivers MetroParks will be collecting live Christmas trees for its conservation project

  • The trees will be used to help improve the fish habitat in Eastwood Lake

  • The trees will be sunk starting Jan. 19

  • The park will be collecting the trees until Jan. 31

Five Rivers Metroparks Biologist Lisa Zoromski has been inspecting donated Christmas trees at Eastwood MetroPark for a couple of weeks now. The trees will be used for an annual conservation project.

“We’re looking for anything artificial like ornaments, tinsel, artificial snow, any plastics or materials we wouldn’t want in the like,” said Zoromski. 

For the past three years, Huber Heights resident Judy Baker has donated a tree for the project. This year, she donated a 6-foot-1 tree. It’s all because she believes in the mission. 

“It’s going to be best for the fishing people and it’s better than putting it in the trash,” said Baker.

A hole will be drilled inside the trunk of the trees once all of them are collected. They then will be wired to a cinder block to sink them in the lake. It’s all to help create a fish habitat inside Eastwood Lake.

“In Eastwood Lake, there use to be a quarry that’s pretty absent of woody plants,” said Zoromski.

And that’s why they’re looking to collect as many trees as they can over the next couple of weeks. Just last year, they collected close to 300. The trees are expected to last underwater anywhere between one to three years. 

“We want to place some trees in this lake and other areas in Ohio that the Division of Wildlife will be sinking trees as well,” she said. 

Zoromski and her colleagues will begin sinking the trees inside the lake Jan. 19. However, they will be still collecting them up until the end of January. She hopes people will consider donating their live trees instead of dropping them off at the landfill. 

“These trees are natural and they can be used for a conservation project to help local fishes and it’s free and easy to do,” she said. “So why not recycle your tree?”

For more information on how you can donate click here.

There are many different ways to recycle live Christmas trees across Ohio. 

In northeast Ohio, Lake Metroparks and Summit Metro Parks are collecting trees to create mulch. In central Ohio, you can donate your tree to Harrison Farm where they will feed it to the goats. 

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