With the Christmas season over, we can take down the decorations and begin to get back to normal. Included in that equation is taking down the Christmas tree and putting it out for the parish pick up so that the tree can be used to help save our deteriorating Gulf coast.
Homeowners should undecorate their trees and put them out streetside. Then they can relax and enjoy the fact that they are helping to build up the Louisiana coast by contributing their Christmas tree to a newfound solution to stopping coastal erosion.
St. Charles Parish crews are currently picking up used Christmas trees curbside through Jan. 21. Drop off sites for residents are also available at the East and West Bank Bridge Parks in Destrehan and Luling.
Those trees will be put into cradles along coastal waterways that hopefully will perform a miracle that we haven’t been able to provide with natural happenings of Mother Nature. They will be designed to stop the surf that tears up our coast and create sediment and vegetation that will help save it.
The Christmas tree program is only one of many programs designed to save our beloved coast. Diverting river waters into the wetlands brings fresh water that promotes the growth of vegetation that holds back encroachment of the Gulf waters that are washing us away. Pumping sediment from river bottoms through pipelines has also been beneficial, while restoration of our barrier islands is protecting our shoreline from the assault confronting it.
At the present time, land the size of a football field is washing away along the Louisiana coast in less than a day. We have been slow in getting our maneuvers together to stop it. It will take a lot more than a Christmas tree program to provide that.
But there is more encouragement ahead in current programs planned by the state.
We all have to make up our minds that the Louisiana coast is here to stay and work to bring it about. Putting our Christmas trees out this month to help hold back erosion along the coast is one way to announce our intentions.
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