DEP cancels Christmas tree recycling events due to COVID-19 pandemic

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has announced it will not be offering its annual Christmas tree recycling events in January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safety concerns amid the pandemic have prompted the DEP to cancel recycling events that were to be held at Charleston’s Capitol Market and in Bridgeport, where a collection site was added last year, the DEP said in a news release last week.

The tree recycling event has been a mainstay at Capitol Market for many years and sponsored by the DEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan in conjunction with the state Division of Natural Resources, according to the DEP.

Hundreds of Christmas trees are collected and repurposed as fish habitat in lakes around West Virginia, according to the DEP, which noted that DNR officials placed trees in Cheat, Tygart, Stonewall Jackson, Stonecoal, Burnsville, Sutton, Summersville, Big Ditch, Sherwood, R.D. Bailey, Beech Fork and East Lynn lakes last season, with the Apple Grove Hatchery in Mason County also receiving trees.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/dep-cancels-christmas-tree-recycling-events-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/article_48bb892e-bacc-57ba-b8c5-f6720cb52261.html