Thursday, January 1, 2026–6:00 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
It’s almost time to Bring One for the Chipper.
Area residents are invited to bring their undecorated, live Christmas trees to the Home Depot on Hicks Drive on Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon to have them recycled.
“We have a lot of ornaments show up, and we do have the live wreaths that people bring in that we have to take the wire out of,” said Hanna Bagley with Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful. “It’s a little, lengthy process. So, if you can scalp it as much as possible and just bring us the live portions of it, that’d be great.”
Despite the name of the event, the trees never actually see the chipper. Instead, they become fish habitat.
“Obviously n,o one puts them in the rivers, although we are a very river-centric city,” Bagley added. “They go in ponds because we want to promote aquatic wildlife as much as possible. There are a lot of cracks and crevices for the fish to get in. They are good hiding spots, great shade, and a great area to spawn. Frogs love to lay their eggs there, too.”
In addition to a new partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, local Rotarians and Scouts will be helping out.
“We will have the Tree Board members, a lot of them are arborists,” Bagley said. Then, we will have the Master Gardeners, and some of the Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful board members will be there too. Everybody is a community member, but either a retired or municipal arborist right now. It’s pretty cool to have the DNR come in, and the trees will live here in Floyd County at the Rocky Mountain Project or at Lake Arrowhead.”
If you bring a tree, you can get a tree. White Oak & Bald Cypress seedlings will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
