Goats will help you recycle your Christmas tree

It's that time when decked-out Christmas trees covered in lights, glass ornaments and tinsel are at many homes. But what happens when it's all over?

Most trees are tossed away outside or in landfills, creating potential fire hazards, said Vince Thomas, a volunteer firefighter with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District.

"I've seen them everywhere, all you have to do is get off the beaten path a ways and you'll see trees all over," said Thomas, who's worked as a firefighter for 26 years. "It was amazing to me to see how many Christmas trees people would just toss out there."

But Thomas found an easy solution.

About 40 goats are leading the way for a new Christmas tree recycling program, launching Friday.

Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District partnered with Goat Grazers, Thomas' family-owned goat herding business, to help manage leftover trees this year.

"All the trees will be taken to the Truckee Meadows fire station in Washoe Valley, which has a lot more room for all them," Thomas said. "Then, we'll toss them over the fence and let the goats have at them."

"They'll eat the pine needles and leave the skeleton of the tree," he said. "It basically looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas with a scrawny tree that has nothing but the branches."

Thomas, a longtime firefighter and goat herder, said his goats have helped eat fire-prone weeds.

"We thought, 'What a great way to get rid of the weeds,'" Thomas said. "With that being said, we had the idea of doing just that with the recycling program and we thought about the trees.

"And the goats are great employees, they love their job and they don't complain."

Thomas said his daughter grew up around animals and raises rabbits, pigs and now goats.

Thomas said he was helping his daughter house her goats at his home in Spanish Springs, when he noticed something unusual.

"I was getting ready to go out and pull weeds for the burn season, and I walked outside, and there were no weeds," Thomas said. "It was my daughter's goats. They ate every single weed in our yard."

One day, Thomas got curious and tossed a piece of pine tree and saw his goats devour it. That's when he it hit him.

"A lot of people are chipping (trees), and we're thinking there needs to be another outlet," Thomas said. "Christmas trees are great for campfire, and we're thinking about cutting them into smaller pieces and using them for firewood or chipping them."

Although it's unusual to see goats eat pine needles, Thomas said there's no need to worry.

"I did a lot of research on that, and it's OK for the goats," Thomas said. "With cattle and some of the other animals, it can cause miscarriages."

"But for goats, it's a natural dewormer, and pine is very high in vitamin C, so it's healthy for them," he said, adding his idea could help reduce fire hazards and the number of trees at landfills.

J Merriman, communications manager for Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, said her group also plans on recycling trees from Friday through Jan. 11. She said the group has been recycling trees for 24 years.

"A lot of people dump it out on the desert and that's really a problem because people think it's a natural thing and it will decompose," Merriman said. "But because we're out in the desert, they don't decompose, it will just get drier and drier and it really becomes a serious fire hazard."

Merriman said dumping trees at landfills can be expensive.

"The trees take up a lot of space, and you get charged by the pickup load," she said. "So, if you have big tree, then that's a big pickup load."

Merriman said the group has been receiving about 10,000 trees each year for the past 9 years and expects the same this year.

"We've been doing it pretty much since the beginning of the organization, and it's a really cool program because the trees get turned into mulch for parks," Merriman said, adding mulch helps keep weeds away and protects from erosion.

The group relies on equipment from Washoe County, Reno, Sparks and even local landscapers.

"It's a real pain to get all that tinsel off, and sometimes there's just that one ornament that you didn't see," Merriman said, "but it's really important for the trees to be completely clean before we get them."

The group has several drop-off sites, including sites at Bartley Ranch Regional ParkRancho San Rafael Regional Parkand Shadow Mountain Sports Complex in Sparks . It's the biggest volunteer project of the year, Merriman said.

"We need a total of 40 shifts with about four to five volunteers for each shift, and we still have 10 shifts we need to fill," Merriman said. "We normally get about 200 to 300 volunteers every year, but it's hard finding people to fill in those shifts like on the day after Christmas or the morning of New Year's Eve.

"But it's a really fun volunteer project because everyone is in the holiday spirit, and you come out smelling like pine tree."

Truckee Meadow fire stations tree drop-off sites:

• Station 13, 10575 Silver Lake Blvd in Stead

• Station 17, 500 Rockwell Blvd in Sparks

• Station 18, 3680 Diamond Peak Drive in Reno

• Station 35, 10201 W. Fourth Street in Mogul

• Station 37, 3255 W. Hidden Valley Drive in Reno

• Station 39, 4000 Joy Lake Road in Reno

Source: Truckee Meadow Fire Protection District

At a glance

Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful will also be accepting trees starting Friday through Jan. 11 at Bartley Ranch Regional ParkRancho San Rafael Regional Parkand Shadow Mountain Sports Complex in Sparks.

Drop-off sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Source: Keep Truckee Meadow Beautiful