Donate trees to protect shoreline

The Daily Inter Lake

An effort to gather used Christmas trees for a shoreline protection project is under way in the Bigfork area.

Mark Lorang, a research assistant professor at the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station, plans to use the trees for "brush bundles" along eroding sections of Flathead River shoreline near the mouth of Flathead Lake.

It is part of a larger project design aimed at curbing erosion on the lake's north shore.

The collection effort is being carried out with the help of Friends of Bigfork Schools.

Trees can be dropped off at a marked area at the Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 7465 Montana 35 north of Bigfork. Trees that are flocked or trees with tinsel should not be donated, and trees should not be dropped off during church hours - between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Trees should be left only in the area designated with flagging, not in the church parking lot.

Trees will be taken from all corners of the Flathead Valley, Lorang said.

Just two days after Christmas, Lorang was estimating that more than 1,000 trees would be collected.