Recycled Christmas Trees Used For Rescued Animals By SWFL Wildlife Org

VENICE, FL — With the holidays over, many Southwest Florida residents are tackling the chore of taking down their decorations, including their Christmas trees.

Rather than putting your tree on the curb for trash pick-up or dropping it off at an approved site, the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida has another option for you.

The Venice-based animal rescue and rehabilitation organization accepts donations of recycled Christmas trees, which are used to enhance the animal habitats they set up for the critters they take in and treat.

“We utilize them for animal enrichment,” the group shared on social media. “Our screech owls and squirrels love them.” (Watch a video of squirrels frolicking in some donated trees below.)

Trees can be brought to the Wildlife Center at 925 N. Jackson Road at the Southwest corner of Border and Jackson roads.

There are other ways to assist the nonprofit, as well, including donating to the organization, buying something from its Amazon wish list, adopting a symbolic plush animal, volunteering and even lending your land as a safe haven for rehabilitated wildlife.

For more than 17 years, the Wildlife Center has worked to protect and to preserve Southwest Florida’s native wildlife through educational outreach and by rescuing, rehabilitating and returning to the wild injured and orphaned animals. The group serves Sarasota, Manatee, Lee and Charlotte counties.

Watch squirrels play in a recycled Christmas tree: