Trees, trees, trees! On Saturday, Jan. 8, Keep Liberty Beautiful had its annual Bring One for the Chipper mulch day. During the last several weeks since Christmas, local residents helped build a mountain of used Christmas trees that were chipped up into useful mulch. Thanks to more than 1,200 residents, we collected a tremendous number of trees that won’t end up in a landfill. Bring One for the Chipper is part of a statewide effort that began in 1991. Keep Georgia Beautiful spearheads the project with state corporate partners Home Depot, The Davey Tree Expert Company and WXIA-TV.
The objectives of the chipper program are:
• To raise awareness about environmental concerns and solutions
• To increase citizen involvement in solutions that reduce solid waste
• To support the state yard trimmings disposal ban by recycling these trees instead of putting them in landfills
• To produce useful mulch for home and community projects for soil enhancement and erosion control
• To give out tree seedlings in exchange for recycled trees to continue growing our tree community in Liberty County
Locally, Keep Liberty Beautiful sponsors the annual event with the Georgia Power Company, Brewer’s Christmas Tree Farm and the Georgia Forestry Commission. These sponsors and many local people make the event happen. Georgia Power is always so gracious to arrange the chipping part of this event. One of their contractors, Townsend Tree Service, stayed busy all morning chipping 1,229 trees. We usually average around 700 or 800 trees each year, so we really appreciate everyone dropping off their trees for recycling. We also used an additional 10 trees for fish habitats in area ponds — another really useful way to re-use a Christmas tree. More than 226,000 trees were recycled last year in Georgia in 121 communities around the state.
We also needed a new location this year because our previous site is under construction. Thanks to Brian Carter and the Carter family for allowing us to use the lot on the corner of Carter Street and Oglethorpe Highway. We also appreciate the help of the guys at the Georgia Forestry Commission and Pascal Brewer for making sure our tree seedlings are given out with useful information on planting and maintaining them. Through a generous donation from the Ferry-Morse Seed Company, we also gave out a variety of vegetable and flower seeds to people who brought in trees.
Clenton Wells and his crew at the Liberty County Public Works Department helped us by moving all the trees dropped off at the solid waste convenience centers around the county and by providing the equipment we needed. I’m always grateful for Clenton, Johnny Schaadt and Mike Howard, who are particularly cooperative.
The Coastal Courier helps us get the word out each year and we sincerely appreciate their continued support for our program. Daniel Clark and the staff at Imprint Warehouse also assisted by designing our fliers, which looked great.
We also had a lot of volunteers who helped out and made sure the trees were clean and moved into place. Thank you to Willie Cato, Connor Cato, Pam Henderson, Dave Sapp, David Duke, Pascal Brewer, Steve Campbell, Yvonne Smith, Johnny N. Davis, Roosevelt Motley, Scottie Fate, James Ellis, Lonnie Crawford, Harold Fields, Steve Bellmoff, Vonita Franklin, Corlandis Franklin, Jan Rell, James Bell, Karen Bell and to everyone else who worked hard on that windy, windy day.
This week, we put phone book collection boxes around town so area residents can conveniently drop off their old books. Please do not toss old phone books or big, fat sales catalogs in the garbage. Drop-off sites are:
• Liberty County Courthouse annex, Hinesville
• Hinesville Police Department
• Midway City Hall
• Riceboro City Hall
• Walthourville City Hall
• Flemington City Hall
• Liberty County Chamber of Commerce
Local businesses and industries also are encouraged to collect their old phone books and business catalogs. Until Feb. 15, we will be happy to arrange a courtesy pickup for any businesses with a substantial number of phone books and sales catalogs to be recycled. Just call Keep Liberty Beautiful at 880-4888 to arrange a pickup for your company.
Recycling phonebooks is easy and important. Every ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees. Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. And many paper products can be recycled up to six times. What an opportunity to extend the life of these resources! Help us keep these recyclable items out of our landfills.

Upcoming events:
• Jan. 26, 1-3 p.m.: Shred Day at building 419 furniture store parking lot on Fort Stewart. For information, call 767-8613 or 767-6573.
• Feb. 18: Georgia Arbor Day
• Feb. 19: Recycle It! Fair and Arbor Day tree giveaway for local residents. KLB will collect electronics and household hazardous waste items and selected household goods for reuse and recycling. We also will give away trees to local residents for Georgia Arbor Day. Call KLB at 880-4888 or e-mail klcb@coastalnow.net for information.