Narrator: Americans buy and toss out
about 30 million Christmas trees every year.
Here in New Orleans, choppers drop thousands
of trees on the bayou.
It's an effort to rebuild the city's shrinking coastline
and help protect it from floods.
But how well does it work?
We went to Louisiana to see how a wildlife refuge prepares
for natural disasters using worldwide waste.
Most natural Christmas trees in the US come from farms.
Because these farms absorb carbon,
real Christmas trees probably have
a smaller environmental footprint than fake ones,
but it depends what happens to them after the holidays.
If biodegradable trees end up in landfills,
they'll release greenhouse gases as they break down.
Several cities mulch their trees
instead of throwing them out.
But no one really knows how many end up in the dump.
The city of New Orleans sends Christmas trees
back to nature.
Bayou Sauvage, a massive wildlife refuge, has been using them
to rebuild the coastline for more than two decades.
Shelley: We are kind of the biggest landowner out here.
We're over 25,000 acres.
Narrator: Maintaining natural areas around New Orleans
is so important because much of the city is sinking.
It was built above sea level,
but today, about half of it is below.
Shelley says the neighborhoods closest to the refuge
get the most protection.
During Hurricane Katrina, the refuge actually did its job.
It absorbed a lot of the water that came
when one of the levees broke.
Narrator: But storms can take a big bite out
of the city's natural buffer.
After Katrina, the city lost
over 150 square miles of wetlands.
Shelley says the Christmas trees accelerate
the natural process of restoring land.
Shelley: If you let it go on its own, it's going to happen,
but it would take time, and time that we really don't have.
Narrator: The city contracts workers
to pick up people's trees in January,
as long as they're clean.
No decorations, no tinsel, no lights, nothing.
Narrator: Then contractors bundle them up by spring.
Shelley: And they are brought to a site that the city owns
right across the street from us.
Narrator: National Guard troops inspect the bundles
and attach snug, helicopter-ready harnesses.
Shelley: We have to make sure that no trees are falling out
as we're airlifting them to the refuge and
we're crossing a highway.
Narrator: Out on the bayou,
guardsmen drop the trees in spots
selected by the refuge workers.
Shelley: Those tree-drive days are just, it's kind of crazy,
because it's like, it's "hurry up and get ready,"
and then we sit and wait.
They're listening, waiting for the same thing,
that sound, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, you know?
Narrator: Moving the trees with helicopters saves time
and allows new pilots a key practice opportunity.
Shelley: This is like real-time training because they do drop loads
in disaster situations or war situations, things like that.
Narrator: After the drops, Shelley and her team collect
the harnesses by airboat. Then, the process repeats.
All day. Helicopter comes in, takes a load, drops it.
Airboat goes in, pulls the harness off.
Helicopter comes in, drops a load. All day.
Narrator: Once in place, the tree branches start to trap
shifting sediment, creating a place
where plants can take root.
The idea is that the dead trees and new plant growth
make the refuge a better shield
against hurricane storm surge.
Since the project began 26 years ago,
about 200 acres of wetlands have been restored.
When you fly over the city,
you fly over our coastal area,
and you see where wetlands have been reestablished,
you can noticeably see green versus not so green.
Narrator: But that's just a small fraction
of the thousands of acres of land Bayou Sauvage
has lost over the past 80 years.
It is effective, but you know,
it's a drop in the bucket in a very large problem.
We need a lot of drops in that bucket
to have measurable impact.
Shelley: It's just, it's a constant battle.
Narrator: Ultimately, the biggest benefit might be
bringing people together to solve a problem
that's expected to get worse as the planet warms.
James: And one of the greatest things about them
is that they've helped people to understand
that there are relatively small things that individuals
can do to help limit coastal land loss.
Narrator: That might just keep people
in the holiday spirit of giving back
long after Christmas has come and gone.
It's a win-win all the way around.
It's a win for the habitat.
It's a win for the wildlife.
And then it's, you know, also a win
for the people of New Orleans, too.
We will do it as long as they want to do it.