VIRGINIA BEACH
As the yuletide season closes, and as all those dried-out Christmas trees get tossed to the curb, SPSA says it cannot recycle them into mulch this year because of budget cuts.
The Southeastern Public Service Authority, facing $240 million in debts, was forced to temporarily close its yard-waste facility in Virginia Beach, effective Jan. 1, meaning that most Christmas trees this year will be dumped into the regional landfill as trash.
But into this environmental vacuum has stepped the city of Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation Department.
It teamed up with state biologists, local businesses and SPSA, too, to collect some 600 unwanted trees in Virginia Beach so they could be turned into artificial fishing reefs.
Workers started crafting the piney reefs Monday morning, tying about 200 trees to cinder blocks and tossing them into the shallows of the North Landing River off Munden Point Park, in southern Virginia Beach.
The trees, picked clean of all ornaments and tinsel, will provide a cozy place for juvenile fish to feed, grow and take shelter from predators - except, of course, local anglers.
"It's an opportunity to help the fish - as well as the local fishing community," said Shawn Hopson, city director of open space, who organized the reef program.
Hopson and biologists from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries expect to sink 200 more collected trees into Lake Trashmore next week and 200 more in Lake Smith after that.
Most of the trees went unsold during the holidays at retail outlets in Virginia Beach, including Lowe's, Home Depot and Taylor Do-It centers. Instead of paying SPSA to dump the trees, the retailers gave them to the city, Hopson said.
For its part, SPSA allowed some city residents to drop off used trees at the yard-waste facility and agreed to truck them to reef sites around the city, officials said.
Until this year, many businesses and residents could count on their Christmas trees being hauled away and shredded into mulch. But as part of about $2.2 million in cost-cutting moves, SPSA shuttered its mulching facility and laid off nine workers there, agency spokesman Tom Kreidel said.
"It's a temporary shutdown," Kreidel said, "and we hope to get operations going again. But no one can really say when that might start back up."
Eric Brittle, a state fisheries biologist, said Christmas trees have been used to construct artificial reefs across Virginia and the rest of the country for years. They have been popular and productive, lasting two or three years before the trees decompose and must be replaced, Brittle said.
The state game department dropped trees into Oak Grove Lake in Chesapeake the past two years, a project that already is bearing fruit, said Chad Boyce, a biologist familiar with the recycling effort.
Virginia Beach previously has placed Christmas trees along sand dunes to control erosion but wants to stick with fishing reefs for awhile.
Hopson said he hopes more businesses participate in the drop-off program next year so he can sink more trees and build more fishing spots in local waters - all without any taxpayer expense.
"Now that's something to build on, right?" Hopson said Monday at Munden Point Park, as a boat full of Christmas trees puttered off toward another reef site.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Cutting our budget and services
Enough is enough. Governor Kaine, Senator Webb and our state representatives are not doing what it takes to deter illegals which is costing US Billions and takes away from the rest of us. It also cost the lives of two teens in Virginia Beach and more throughout the country, why are they not protecting us?
If we didn't have to support illegals' healthcare and education needs, we wouldn't be so short on money. Hospitals, individuals, businesses and state and federal governments pay more for products and services because the cost is passed on to us on at least 7 levels, whether you have insurance or not!
What does our so-called reps have to say about that???
Every one of us is paying the price for illegals and our so-called reps are not doing their job to protect our sovereignty or safety!!!
That problem is easily solved by mandating E-Verify for all Virginia businesses. Since this is a state business license issue, it doesn't fall under federal law. Check out the successful workers' rights act law in Arizona.
757-887-6629 if you have any questions.
This makes no sense
Have the people at SPSA lost their minds? How difficult is it to cut up a tree and throw it in a chipper-shredder??? And they want us to believe that it's easier to transport all those trees to a landfill? These people not only need to be fired, they need some serious mental help!
Uneducated
SPSA was started years ago by the cities of tidewater. At that time the cities chose to borrow as you go for operating cost rather than put up the cash. The SPSA Board of Directors are the Councilmen from each city, not people hired by SPSA. SPSA cannot make a profit and bank it for the next year, therefore it must borrow each year as per the wish of the cities. It's time to stop blaming SPSA and blame your own city governments for the debt that is owed.
BOGUS Headlines ...
Fact:
The SPSA cutbacks had nothing to do with the Christmas Tree Recycling Project!
Fact:
SPSA has worked with various City and State organizations for over 10 years - using Christmas Trees for dune restoration, artificial fishereies, and providing free christmas tree mulch to residents.
Fact:
The article .. does not give proper credit to those people who mutually agreed to particiapte in the Christmas Tree program, including local businesses including Tidewater Block of Suffolk who supplied the block for FREE, others that donated the rope for FREE, and employees of The City of Va. Beach, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
This article should not have been "twisted" to highlight a negative headline, but should have praised the efforts of those that worked hard to do the right thing!
Now, lets have a good day!
The entire SPSA Board must be immediately be replaced.
The entire SPSA Board must be immediately replaced.
Sea Kitten Homes
Perhaps the Pilot didn't get the word about PETA's redisignation of fish as "Sea Kittens". They hope it will make them less appealing to the human palate. Guess they don't know how yummy catfish are. Anyway..
In Louisiana, they use discarded Christmas trees to shore up natural levees. I think creating artifical reefs is another good way to make use of the trees. Kudos to all involved.
Hostage Christmas Trees
I guess SPSA is trying to scare us out of more money by not recycling our Christmas trees into mulch and compost THEY SELL. Thanks, Pilot for showing us one other way to recycle trees. Along the Bay, folks put them into the dunes to help build them up. SPSA is like a bloated carcass on the beach of our region. I wouldn't give them any money until they found a director who knows something about garbage. Then the first thing the new director could do was take out the rest of the "trash."
Cut Backs
Truly a sob story! Well, more cut-backs are coming so be ready for more tales of woe by overworked city employees.