Over 300 Christmas Trees Recycled At Island Beach State Park

ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK, NJ - Hundreds of Christmas trees were repurposed by volunteers at Island Beach State Park on Saturday to strengthen the park's dunes.

Christmas trees were lined up at the base of eroding dunes throughout the park to capture wind-blown sand, helping them grow into dunes faster than they would naturally.

The park asked people with tree donations to register in advance this year and sought only 300 trees, a significantly smaller collection than in previous years.

In 2019, the park received over 2,000 trees when a larger area of the park was in need of dune stabilization.

The collection on Saturday marked the return of the recycling project after it was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 public gathering restrictions in place for the large number of volunteers involved.

Keep up to date with what's happening in your community by subscribing to your local Patch newsletter here.