A Brief History of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Christmas Conservation
Spurred by the growing environmental movement, Rockefeller Center recycled its first Christmas tree in 1971, turning it into 30 three-bushel bags of mulch for the nature trails of upper Manhattan. Other organizations to later benefit from the leftover lumber include the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and, most recently, Habitat for Humanity, which in 2005 used the wood to make doorframes for homes in New York, Louisiana, India and Brazil.

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