Alabama Students Use Christmas Trees to Restore Gulf Coast Dunes
Since 2021, high school students in Alabama have been leading a coastal restoration project along the Gulf Coast by repurposing discarded Christmas trees to trap sand and rebuild dunes. Each year, approximately 200 students and community volunteers place recycled trees along the shoreline in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and plant around 3,000 native plants such as sea oats and panicgrass to stabilize the dunes. The initiative aims to protect the coastline from erosion and storm surges while providing habitat for local wildlife, including the endangered Alabama beach mouse. The project is a collaboration between local government, schools, and environmental groups, and has become a cost-effective and impactful way to restore the region's fragile coastal ecosystem. 
