By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

If you purchased your Christmas tree closer to Thanksgiving, it’s outlived its life span, not to mention its usefulness.

The city of St. Cloud Parks and Recreation’s Tree Advisory Committee has a better alternative for residents than putting it to the curb for collection by the weekly garbage pickup and clogging up the landfill.

The TAC will run its ninth annual “Don’t Curb It… S.W.A.P. It” event Jan. 12 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Peghorn Nature Park and Trail. S.W.A.P., short for St. Cloud Winning Arbor Patrol, is a city effort to increase recycling awareness and enhance the urban forest, as well as help in avoiding neighborhood curbsides from being cluttered with dry, decaying and unsightly trees.

Residents are invited to bring their live Christmas trees to Peghorn Park and swap them for a containerized tree for their yards. The Christmas trees will be recycled and mulched on site, and the residents also will receive this mulch to spread around the base of the newly planted tree for free. Elms, red maples, magnolias, crape myrtles and palms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program sponsor the program. Parks and Recreation Department volunteers and the Osceola County master gardeners will assist in the effort.

To further the conservation effort, city Public Services personnel also will be on hand to offer free garden hose nozzles and low-flow shower heads, as well as information on its toilet rebate program and curbside single-stream recycling program, which debuted over Labor Day weekend and resulted in 638 tons of items being recycled and avoiding the release of 921 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information, call Parks and Recreation at 407-957-7243.