Canoga Park : Tree Sale Offers Green Alternative

Canoga Park High School is selling live Christmas trees to raise money for the school and ease pressure on landfills.

The trees, sold in the containers in which they were grown, can be replanted after the holiday season, said Heather Lawson, a junior and president of the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter. For those who don’t have room at home, she said, there are many parks and schools in the community that would be happy to take them.

Proceeds from the tree sales will go to the school’s Environmental/Agricultural Science Magnet, said Steve Pietrolungo, coordinator of the magnet program. The trees are sold daily from sunrise to sunset from a lot on campus at the corner of Vanowen Street and Jordan Avenue.

About 500 of the trees on sale were grown in a nursery on campus that is part of the school’s agricultural program, Pietrolungo said. The rest of the trees, he said, were purchased from a wholesaler. The agricultural program includes a 1.5-acre farm on the campus.

The trees for sale range from six-inch plants that sell for $2 to seven-foot coastal redwoods and Italian stone pines that cost as much as $60, school officials said.

This is the fourth year the school has sold live Christmas trees, Pietrolungo said.