As families start taking down Christmas lights and decorations,
it’s important to consider how to dispose of Christmas trees.
While some consider cutting up the empty, dry tree, officials
warn of the potential spread of pitch canker. The non-native tree
disease has killed thousands of native and ornamental pine trees in
the past few years. Pine trees are the most common used for
Christmas trees.
As families start taking down Christmas lights and decorations, it’s important to consider how to dispose of Christmas trees.
While some consider cutting up the empty, dry tree, officials warn of the potential spread of pitch canker. The non-native tree disease has killed thousands of native and ornamental pine trees in the past few years. Pine trees are the most common used for Christmas trees.
“People should get rid of (their Christmas trees) so pitch canker doesn’t spread,” said Mark Tognazzini, San Benito County agricultural commissioner. “The Monterey Peninsula has a lot of it.”
Pitch canker is present in 19 coastal and adjacent in-land counties from Mendocino to San Diego, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire. It does not infect humans, pets or other plants.
Symptoms of pitch canker include the wilting and fading of needles on previously vigorous, unshaded branch tips, with resin exuding from the infection site; lesions; foliage can become yellow, then red, and falls from the branch; loss of needles; and honey-colored wood that is soaked with resin.
Keeping the trees or not disposing of them properly can spread pitch canker to other trees.
The most infected trees are Monterey and bishop pines. The danger of pitch canker should not deter people from buying the trees since every attempt is made to sell disease-free trees, according to the CDF.
To help prevent the spread of pitch canker, people are urged to purchase and dispose of Monterey pine Christmas trees locally – don’t transport them long distances. Also, preferred methods of disposal include discarding the tree promptly through a local recycling program; disposing it at a local landfill that buries or composts green waste; or chipping the tree and composting the chips or using them as mulch, according to the CDF.
The Hollister and San Juan Bautista Boy Scouts troops will be picking up trees for recycling Jan. 3, 4 and 11. The pick up serves San Juan Bautista and major sub-divisions in Hollister. For a $5 donation, people can leave their trees on the curb by 9 a.m. any of those mornings.
Since 1992, the pick up has served as the troops’ biggest fund-raiser. The boy scouts handle a few thousand trees every December, said Ronco Lien, committee chair of the local boy scouts.
“We try to hit every home in Hollister,” Lien said.
This Saturday will be the busiest for the troops. Lien expects to be out from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or until every tree is picked up. Also, people who live outside the city’s limits can call and have their tree picked up, Lien said.
Hollister Disposal also picks up trees. Tress have to be cut into 3-foot sections with branches tied to the trunk. For customers with yard waste service, the pick up is free. Otherwise, residents need to pick up $2.50 tags to attach to each bundle to notify Hollister Disposal to pick up the trees. Collections take place on normal garbage days.
Pitch canker was discovered in California in 1986, where it is now causing serious damage to pines in native forests and in landscape plantings. Besides Monterey pine, other trees open to infection include Shore pine, Lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine and Knobcone pine.
For more information on pitch canker, visit http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/pitch_canker/. For more information on the Christmas tree pickups, call Troop 436 in Hollister at 628-3045, Troop 428 in San Juan at 623-4360 or Hollister Disposal at 637-5113.
Michelle Hatfield can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 330 or at
mh*******@fr***********.com
.
