County Seeks Discarded Christmas Trees for Fish Habitat

RIVERSIDE - Riverside County residents are being encouraged to recycle their Christmas trees this season to preserve landfill space -- and help protect little fish.

The county's Department of Waste Management is giving trees dumped at county landfills to the state for a program aimed at securing juvenile fish habitat.

Under the program, which the Board of Supervisors endorsed last year, the California Department of Fish and Game uses discarded holiday trees to fortify Lakes Elsinore, Gregory, Hemet and Perris, where small fish populations are at risk from larger predatory fish.

Trees are subme...