Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree! Top tips for eco-friendly trees

A guest blog from Lindsay Wallace at Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust

In the next few weeks around six million real Christmas trees will be sold across the UK. It’s also at this time of year when trees become quite a hot topic of conversation at the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT). But we’re not talking about the type with baubles and pressies underneath!

December is the start of the winter tree planting season – and from now until next Spring YDMT and our partners will plant anything up to 150,000 trees in the Yorkshire Dales and surrounding areas.
With the support of individuals and key partners like the People’s Postcode Lottery we’ve already helped to plant over 1 million native broadleaf trees. But there’s still much more work to be done to generate new native woodlands, connect existing woodlands and increase habitats for native mammals and birds.
So in the next few weeks, while you’re hitting the high street to find the perfect pine, we’re urging you to think about the environment and make yours a greener Christmas this year.

Here are our top tips for the most eco-friendly real Christmas trees.
1.    Buy local – many Christmas trees are grown in Europe. Always go for British grown trees and avoid the environmental price tag associated with importing them to the UK.
2.    Go for FSC-certified trees, which are sustainably grown in Britain. For every tree felled, at least one is planted.
3.    Grow your own – many shops sell replantable Christmas trees, which (if you don’t kill them off!) can be grown in the garden or in tubs ready again for next year.
4.    Recycle cut trees after Christmas. Contact your council or local garden centre.
5.    Say no to fir! Ditch the traditional tree and support woodland restoration projects like ours. YDMT’s Tree Dedication scheme gives you the opportunity to have a native, broadleaf tree planted in the great outdoors –a truly eco-friendly Christmas tree that will last for decades to come.
Happy shopping and have a very green Christmas from everyone at the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust!