Retrieving Unwanted Christmas Trees
Our mission was a relatively simple one: retrieve discarded Christmas trees and bring them to nearby Balboa Park where the Los Angeles City Bureau of Sanitation was sponsoring a tree recycling program to turn used trees into compost and mulch. These trees would once again breathe life into the soil.
What we didn’t anticipate in undertaking this environmental task was the abundance of waste, the sheer number of trees simply thrown away with Thursday’s garbage, not to mention the unknown number of trees gone unsold and dumped. So we worked like little elves in the night--driving through dimly lit neighborhoods, immediately spotting any green “lump” and throwing it into our truck.
Our merry band of “thieves”--stealing from the ditch and giving to the earth--quickly became known as “the Tree Patrol.” Our motto: “A tree is a terrible thing to waste.” Until next year . . .
ANDREA PETT
Tarzana
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