Christmas Tree Reuse Planned At Salt Marsh Sanctuary In Point Pleasant

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — Point Pleasant's public works department will be collecting residents' natural Christmas trees as part of a continuing project to protect the borough from storm surges.

The trees will be collected in January for use in the ongoing living shoreline restoration project at the Slade Dale Sanctuary, a 15-acre municipal property on Sea Point Drive. The project is under the direction of the American Littoral Society.

In the spring, the trees that have been collected will be put into Barnegat Bay to help reduce wave energy and allow the salt marsh at the sanctuary to build up.

The trees are put into branchbox breakwaters, which are wooden structures set in Beaverdam Creek that are designed to control erosion by using trees and brush to slow currents and waves, as well as capture the sediment being carried in the water, according to the Littoral Society.

The shoreline at Slade Dale Sanctuary has eroded approximately 600 feet since 1930. The sanctuary’s pine-oak forest, hardwood swamp, and salt marsh provide a space of protected wilderness, providing nursery habitat for fish, and foraging habitat for ospreys, egrets, and bald eagles, among other species.

People who are not Point Pleasant residents but would like to contribute to the project can drop off their trees at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 708 Route 88 in Point Pleasant.

Be sure to remove all ornaments, tinsel and lights before discarding the tree.

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