“We will not put dead trees in town squares.
This is not at all our conception of revegetation.
"By announcing during his first press conference back to school that he had given up installing the traditional giant Christmas tree on the town hall square, the new environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, drew wrath of those who saw in it the attack in rule of a popular "tradition".
But on a strictly ecological level, did he deserve to be at this point ... garlanded?
The elected green point the financial and environmental cost of such an operation.
In 2017, for example, the 20 m high Nordmann installed in the city center came from Corrèze where it had been cut in a garden.
To reach the Gironde, the giant had been transferred in an exceptional convoy.
A 30 t crane was needed to install it in front of the town hall.
Add to this the 10 km of electric garlands illuminated every night as well as the guarding of the tree and the total cost amounts, according to the elected Bordeaux, to around 60,000 euros.
"A fortune", deplores Pierre Hurmic who wishes "to promote living trees in Bordeaux, not cut trees".
"A few dozen conifers intended to be cut"
This sentence makes the president of the French Association of the natural Christmas tree green with rage.
“Many cities install large Christmas trees each year, but we are talking about a few dozen conifers, often taken from plantations and which were anyway intended to be cut to make room for others,” explains Frédéric Naudet.
While 5.5 million small conifers are purchased for December 25 each year in France, the producer wishes to point out that these trees are not uprooted in the forest but grown in dedicated plantations and therefore do not contribute to deforestation.
"They are 80% of French origin, are produced in the Morvan, Brittany or Rhône-Alpes by farmers on an area of approximately 5000 ha and several thousand jobs depend on it", insists Frédéric Naudet.
READ ALSO>
Natural or artificial, which tree is the greenest?
A Quebec study estimated in 2009 that it would take twenty years to keep an artificial tree made in China for its carbon footprint to be better than a natural tree that has traveled 150 km to end up in your living room.
“Not only do natural trees store CO2 while they grow, but they can become a small carbon sink in your home if you replant them,” insists the producer.
And if you bought them cut, most cities have now set up recycling channels that make it possible to make compost.
"
