With the Christmas season behind us, residents will begin taking down the decorations and of course, Christmas trees.

The City of Clinton city gives residents the opportunity to have the real trees from the Christmas season picked up. Public Works Director for the City of Clinton, Steve Lobb explains his crews will be out around the first of the year, although, they have begun to make the round already, picking up those trees. Normally, the city does not take anything wrapped in plastic, but this is the one time of year they make an exception for that rule.

[audio:trees1.mp3] [/audio]

Once those trees have been picked up, the yard waste faciltiy will hold those until the early spring time. Lobb explains they somtimes get the Department of Natural Resources or other land owners desiring the remains for their properties. He says once the early spring rolls around though, they begin the process of turning them into mulch.

[audio:trees2.mp3] [/audio]

With this summer's drought, may of the areas trees are incredibly dry. Depending on the type of Christmas tree you may have brought into your home, the drought may have caused the tree to begin shedding it's needles rather quickly. Lobb explains this doesn't surprise him, in fact, the past couple of summer's Illinois has been under a drought, and he would have expected that to happen.

[audio:trees3.mp3] [/audio]

Lobb says over the past several years, he's begun to see the trend of residents going towards artificial trees rather than the real trees.

Traditionally, city crews begin their tree collection around the first of the year, but Lobb says they have already begun to pick them up as some trees have begun cropping up outside homes since the day after Christmas. He says they will continue circling the city for the next few weeks to allow plenty of time and opportunity to get those trees out of the home.