Keep Gilmer Beautiful hosting one-day Lowe’s event, Carters Lake drop-off till Jan. 14
As real Christmas trees come down after the holidays, Keep Gilmer Beautiful is offering a recycling option for the discarded evergreens.
The first-time Christmas tree recycling effort led by the local community beautification group is using three different locations to collect those trees from the public. One will be a single-day event, while the other two will run into mid-January. There is no charge to drop off trees at any of the locations.
The one-day Christmas tree recycling event will be held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, at the East Ellijay Lowe’s, 380 Highland Crossing.
Drop-off points have also been put up at two Carters Lake boat ramps. Trees will be collected at the Doll Mountain and Ridgeway boat ramps until Jan. 14.
“The two at Carters Lake are already open. They have cones and taped-off areas for drop-off. Trees can be dropped off (there) at any time,” said Ron Cheslock, Keep Gilmer Beautiful board chairman.
The tree recycling is being coordinated under the banner of Keep Georgia Beautiful’s long-running Bring One for the Chipper program, through which discarded Christmas trees are often ground into mulch.
Chipping won’t be done here, noted Cheslock. Instead, trees collected in Gilmer County will be used by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel for fish habitat at Carters Lake.
“In many of the communities where they don’t have a body of water, they take the trees and use them for mulch. We’d talked about that idea, but in speaking with the rest of our board members, we thought this would be a great opportunity for us to partner with Carters Lake,” Cheslock said.
“When the weather gets warmer, the trees will be placed out in the lake in various locations. Sometimes they’ll tie them to pallets. Sometimes they affix them to anchors and throw them in,” he added.
Cheslock said a Carters Lake ranger will be on hand at the Lowe’s event with a truck and trailer to haul away the trees. Those already being collected at the two boat ramps will also be used to provide habitat for small fish in the man-made lake.
“This being our first year, we hope we’ll be able to get off on the right foot and hopefully make this a tradition,” Cheslock said.
At the Lowe’s event, Keep Gilmer Beautiful will be giving out 100 red oak and dogwood seedlings in partnership with the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation and Georgia Forestry Commission, Cheslock noted.
“If they bring a Christmas tree, they can also take a tree,” he said.