If you have a real Christmas tree to get rid of, you will now be faced with the issue of getting rid of it.

You can of course use the council’s disposal service. There are details here, but some of the times for pick up are, even now, a couple of weeks away.

Or you could donate your tree to Cammo Estate where it would become home to birds and wildlife, before breaking down into the soil over the months ahead.

The Friends of Cammo Park, a 200 strong voluntary group who help the council and Natural Heritage Service which manages Cammo Estate, are appealing for the public to recycle Christmas trees by donating them at the Estates Park Lodge.

The Christmas trees will support the wildlife, promote environmental care and this initiative highlights why trees, timber and wood are better left on the land than being chipped and used for compost.

A small Robin sits on the branch of a Christmas tree that’s part a deadwood habitat pile created by the Friends of Cammo, using donated trees. Neil Hanna Photography www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk 07702 246823

The Friends have appealed on Facebook and so far 350 trees have been donated and used to create deadwood habitat piles at various places in the woodland.

Local resident and Friends Chairperson, Nick Benge said “I think that people want to do something to help the environment and there are a very limited number of things that you can do practically and in a kind of definite way and our appeal has struck a chord with people.

“Deadwood is a really really important part of woodland ecology, it’s one of the basic pathways for the ecology of the wood, so when you bring deadwood into the park it grows a lot of fungi, they can act as hibernation places for frogs and toads in Cammo because of the canal and if you put wood piles down then lift it in a year or so you’d find a lot of animals and insects living in it and then what happens is birds like robins and wrens and other small birds will find lots of food in amongst the deadwood.”

The piles of Christmas trees have a long term environmental benefit as the carbon captured breaks down into the soil rather than being released into the atmosphere.

All photos courtesy of Neil Hanna Photography www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk 07702 246823

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.